12.6.3 Venue, jurisdiction and case assignment rules
12.6.3.1 Infringement and invalidation actions
Since September 1, 2004, with the entry into force of Organic Law No. 8/2003,71 jurisdiction for patent infringement, invalidation and other related civil litigation in Spain, has been assigned to the commercial courts located in the autonomous community seats of the country’s High Courts of Justice.72
For cases concerning industrial property, on the other hand, jurisdiction was significantly restructured after the entry into force of current patent law, LP-2015, on April 1, 2017.
According to Article 118 of LP-2015, objective jurisdiction for industrial property litigation has been assigned to commercial courts in autonomous community seats of High Courts of Justice, but not in every autonomous community – only those which the General Council of the Judiciary has designated for such exclusive jurisdiction.
To date, the General Council of the Judiciary has exclusively assigned specialized jurisdiction for industrial property cases to commercial courts in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Las Palmas, Bilbao, La Coruña and Granada.
Territorial jurisdiction for those cases is assigned to a commercial court specialized in that area according to the domicile of the defendant, as described above, or in its absence to the domicile of the defendant’s authorized representative in Spain if such a specialized commercial court is located there.
Absent courts specialized in industrial property at both venues, then the plaintiff can choose any commercial court recognized as competent for industrial property cases.
For industrial property infringement cases, the court specialized in such cases in the autonomous community where the alleged infringement has either occurred or produced effects may be chosen as competent, at the plaintiff’s discretion.
Absent such courts in those venues, any commercial court assigned jurisdiction for industrial property cases by the General Council of the Judiciary may be chosen as competent, also at the plaintiff’s discretion.
Jurisdiction for all appeals against commercial court decisions in any province is assigned to the corresponding Provincial Court specializing in such appeals.
12.6.3.2 Appeals against SPTO decisions
The reform of Organic Law No. 7/2022, which entered into force on January 14, 2023, assigned, as a sole instance, jurisdiction for appeals against SPTO industrial property decisions marking the exhaustion of administrative remedies to the commercial sections of certain Provincial Courts.
More specifically, such competence was assigned to the commercial court located in the seat of the High Court of Justice in the autonomous community where the plaintiff is domiciled, if assigned jurisdiction for industrial property cases by the General Council of the Judiciary, or in the absence of such a court, where the plaintiff’s authorized representative in Spain is domiciled.73 Alternatively, the specialized sections of the Provincial Court in which the headquarters of the SPTO are located may be chosen as competent, again at the plaintiff’s discretion.74
Prior to the enactment of this reform, the judicial review of SPTO decisions on industrial property had been the responsibility of the administrative law chambers of the High Courts of Justice, which are organs of administrative litigation jurisdiction.
There are 17 autonomous communities in Spain, which means that commercial courts in 17 cities (the seat of each community's High Court of Justice) were assigned jurisdiction for such litigation.
As noted earlier, only the specialized sections of the Provincial Courts of La Coruña, Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Granada and Las Palmas have been assigned such exclusive jurisdiction.
The SPTO is based in Madrid.