As of January 14, 2023, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office will be in charge by Law of declaring the nullity and expiration of trademarks , a competence that to date was attributed to the Courts of Justice, which, however, will maintain their jurisdictional functions in cases in which the nullity or expiration of the trademark is filed through a counterclaim in an action for trademark infringement.
In this paper we are going to analyze the case of expiration of a Spanish trademark due to lack of use.
The law grants the owner of a trademark the right to use it exclusively, but it also imposes the obligation to use it "effectively" from the date of the concession, since if, within a period of five years counted from the date of its registration, the holder does not make effective use in Spain for the products or services for which a third party is registered, may request its expiration, unless there is a justifiable cause for the absence of use, such as import restrictions or other official requirements taxes on products for which that trademark is registered.
Now, what is meant by effective use? Read more