Intelectual Property Rights (IPR)

Protection or registration is not compulsory for individuals or companies that intend to develop or exploit an invention, an aesthetic creation or brand products and services in the marketplace.

However, it is highly recommended, given the multiple benefits that it offers:

• It secures a legal monopoly: This monopoly allows you to prevent someone from using a trademark, a patent or a design or model (or any other type of IP) without your consent. It also allows the owner to set in motion all legal procedures to cease or punish any usurpations. Attention! In Portugal, rights to property and exclusive use are acquired only through registration with INPI, not through simple use in the marketplace.
• It confers the right to use symbols that may dissuade violation of your rights, such as ®, Pat. no. or DM no. The use of these symbols is only permitted for those who have been successful in acquiring registration. They may sometimes prevent or avoid activity that may damage your rights.
• It provides greater safety for investments made by your company: The grant of registration/protection implies that there are no previously existing trademarks, patents, or designs or models (or other types of IP) that can invalidate your rights. In this way, the risk of conflict with holders of previously awarded rights is minimized. Such a conflict could result in your being forced to withdraw all the investment you have made in the development and implementation of a certain sign or invention.
• It grants a right to property: The property right acquired through protection or registration is freely available, and the holder can profit from their investments by transferring this right or issuing licences for the exploitation of their trademarks, patents or designs or models.

Inventions

The results of inventive activity in all fields of technology can be protected with a temporary title, by means of:

• Patents
• Utility Models
• Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPC)
• Semiconductor Topographies

Signs

A written sign, such as a picture or a word, that serves to identify products, services, establishments or entities in the market, can be protected by means of:

• Trademarks
• Logotypes
• Awards
• Appellations of Origin
• Geographic Indications of Source

Designs

The appearance or design of an object (the aesthetic form resulting from the creative activity of companies and designers) can be protected by means of:

• Design

Registration and protection granted in Portugal - through INPI - is only effective in Portugal, and does not protect the trademark or patent in any other country.

Industrial property rights (trademarks, patents, and designs, amongst others) are locally applicable rights, only guaranteeing protection in the country where they were granted.

For example, if a trademark is only registered in Portugal, its owner can only defend his rights in Portugal. He cannot prevent anyone in Spain from using an identical or similar sign.

If a company’s business strategy involves exporting products or reaching out to new markets, the Industrial Property System also offers several means to guarantee protection in other countries for the various types of industrial property.

Priority Claims

Should you wish to chose for any of the means of protection abroad, an application for registration or protection made in Portugal allows you, for a period of 6 or 12 months, to take advantage of the right of priority to file an application in another country: in any Member State of the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (CUP).

If an application made abroad is lodged within this time limit, it will be regarded as having been lodged on the same date as the original application made in Portugal (known as ‘right of priority’). This can prove to be very advantageous.