12-04-2006
Within the major growth plan put in place by HERRERO & ASOCIADOS in recent years, resulting in different new offices being opened in strategic areas of Spain, we have resolved to also take up our professional business directly in our neighbour country, opening a new office in an emblematic area of Lisbon, already in operation since December 2005 and fully operational from 1st January 2006.
In order to guarantee the same quality service we have long since been providing from all our offices we have resolved that we must be directly present in Portugal, ruling out taking an interest in or taking over or entering into other partnership agreements with firms already in existence. HERRERO & ASOCIADOS will therefore be fully in control of and responsible for our activity in that country.
Within the single market of the European Union, Spain and Portugal are perceived as a major specific interconnected market, which stands to reason bearing in mind the large investments of Spanish companies in Portugal and the far from negligible investments of Portuguese companies in Spain. Multinational companies usually establish an only head office for both countries, brand their goods for both markets and plan their business operations for the peninsular territory as a whole and their offshore territories. It is therefore reasonable that anyone taking an interest in marketing and disseminating goods or services in Spain should also be interested in doing so in Portugal, and vice versa. Consequently, properly protecting intellectual property rights in both countries is also a prime necessity.
Our new services in Portugal shall keep the attributes characteristic of our operations in Spain, that is to say offering a best-in-class comprehensive industrial property service with simplified handling of administrative procedures at a highly competitive rate.
Industrial property in Portugal is not however new to HERRERO & ASOCIADOS. We have for many years handled and managed patent and trade mark applications in that country, albeit through local correspondents having an international reputation. This has allowed practitioners in our Madrid office's international departments to grow very used to Portuguese practice and specifics.
In sharing tasks and procedures between our Madrid and Lisbon offices we optimise our existing infrastructure and thereby avoid having to set up in Portugal a complex duplicate administrative and bureaucratic network. Our clients may thus be offered a hugely beneficial rate.
We have a team of qualified Portuguese professionals and noteworthy among them is Dr Manuel Durâes Rocha, a reputable lawyer and Industrial Property agent with longstanding experience in our sector, both in and out of court, and Dr Teresa Delgado, a lawyer who also specialises in this branch and who was previously in charge of the Industrial Property Department at a Lisbon law firm.
Our Portugal office offers broad-ranging patent and trade mark services, including filing and fully processing all manner of applications with the INPI (Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial), searches in registers, oppositions, appeals, renewals and maintenance of registrations, etc. We also act in legal industrial property proceedings in Portuguese courts and at all levels.
Particularly noteworthy is the chapter involving validations of European patents, in which we have devised a product with which our clients are able by means of a single procedure to simultaneously validate their European patent in Spain and in Portugal at single rate and to maintain a single line of correspondence with us.
Herrero & Asociados in Portugal:
Avda. Liberdade, 69- 3°A.
1250-148 Lisbon
Tel: (351) 213 24 63 40
Fax: (351) 213 24 63 49
info.portugal@herrero.pt
www.herrero.pt