Protocol of on-call service and prompt response for the Mobile World Congress 2020

4th December 2019

The Board of Judges in the Barcelona Commercial Court and EUIPO Trademark Court have decided, at their joint meeting on 15 November  2019, that during the Mobile World Congress, which will be taking place in Barcelona from 24 – 27 February 2020, they will undertake a number of actions (as set out below) due to the potential conflicts that may arise between the participating companies, as owners of IP rights, which may lead to a request for precautionary measures – as has happened in previous years. To avoid adopting precautionary measures without a hearing and, at the same time, guaranteeing the adoption of effective measures to protect those rights, the Mercantile Judges of Barcelona and Alicante have jointly established during the month of February 2020 a Protocol of on call service and rapid action as follows:

1. A preferential prosecution to applications for preliminary proceedings and/or fact-finding proceedings involving patents, technological innovations and industrial designs whose presentation is scheduled for the Mobile World Congress; as well as infringement of trademarks and IP rights.

2. First and foremost prosecution of urgent cautionary measures (with or without a hearing) relating to patents and technological innovations and industrial designs, whose presentation is scheduled for the aforementioned Mobile World Congress.

3. They undertake to resolve within a period of two days (48 hours) the requests for preliminary measures and/or fact-finding proceedings. And, within the same period, requests for precautionary measures without a hearing of the defendant; and a maximum period of ten days for the resolution of precautionary measures with a hearing, from the moment they enter the court, provided that a precautionary brief has been filed.

4. With the objective of avoiding a possible IP conflict the admission of requests for preventive documents will be resolved on the same day as their presentation (24 hours).

5. To assess the urgency referred to in article 733 of the Spanish Civil Procedure Law in the adoption of precautionary measures without a hearing, unless this may jeopardize the success of the same, the behaviour of the plaintiff and the speed with which they reacted to the knowledge of the possible infringement will be decisive. It will be important that the application has been filed with such notice that in good faith it does not reasonably prevent the hearing of the defendant, when the owner of the allegedly infringed right had prior knowledge of the possible infringement and could have filed his application with sufficient time.

6. To undertake, ex officio or at the request of a party, the specific measures necessary to preserve the confidentiality of information that may constitute a trade secret and that has been involved in a procedure relating to the violation of trade secrets or to a procedure of any other kind in which its consideration is necessary to resolve on the merits. All within the scope of the Spanish Business Secrets Law.

7. The Commercial Court of Barcelona will carry out the immediate enforcement of the precautionary measures and/or urgent measures that, within the scope of its specific competence, the Court of Trademarks of the European Union of Alicante rules on matters relating to the trademarks of the European Union and Community Designs.