Oficina española de Patentes y Marcas

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What do expiry and invalidation of industrial property rights mean?

Industrial property rights are temporary and can “disappear” for several reasons.

Invalidation of an industrial property right is equivalent to the right never having existed, because it should not have been granted in the first place. The grounds for invalidation can include, for example, failure to comply with the requirements set out by law or that the holder lacked the right to obtain it.

Expiry means that the right is “extinguished” because of failure to fulfil some of the obligations required by law, such as the payment of maintenance fees or how the right was used.

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