Last 19th October 2018, the Permanent Commission of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGJ) has established the specialization in industrial property of various Commercial Courts, in the Autonomous Communities of Andalusia, Canary Islands, Basque Country and Galicia.
The Commercial Courts specialization in industrial property began in December 2016 and, later, in February 2017, when the CGJ established assigned exclusively jurisdiction in those matters to various Courts in Catalonia, Madrid and the Community of Valencia.
Based on the new patent legislation, the General Council of the Judiciary undertook an overall design regarding national specialized Courts, as a balanced solution between the principle of proximity and decentralization as well the necessity of specialization, following the line marked by other UE regulation in industrial property law.
Therefore, as Catalonia, Madrid and Community of Valencia, Andalusia is a territory where there are high number of cases, the Permanent Commission had agreed the Commercial Court of Grenada specialization.
Additionally, has been agreed the specialization of the Commercial Courts based in Las Palmas, due to the distance between the Canary Islands and Spain. The distance of Galicia and Basque Country, also is the reason why the CGJ has agreed to appoint Commercial Courts of specialization.
As a result, the Courts that have exclusive jurisdiction regarding the industrial property matter, are the following:
Andalusia: Commercial Court n. 1 of Grenada
Catalonia: Commercial Courts n. 1, 4 and 5 of Barcelona (patents and industrial designs), Commercial Courts n. 2, 6, 8 and 9 (trademarks)
Community of Valencia: Commercial Court n. 2 of Valencia (patents), Commercial Courts n. 1 y 3 (trademarks and industrial designs).
Madrid: Commercial Courts n. 7, 8, 9, 10 of Madrid
Galicia: Commercial Courts n. 1 y 2 of A Coruña
Canary Islands: Commercial Courts n. 1 y 2 of Las Palmas
Basque Country: Commercial Court n. 2 of Bilbao.