The General Council of the Judiciary in Agreement of October 18, made public today, has resolved expand judicial specialization in industrial property to new Courts.
It will be remembered that since the entry into force of the 24 / 2015 of Patents in April 2017, the objective jurisdiction of lawsuits regarding trademarks, designs and patents had been in hands of certain Commercial Courts of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. This migration of litigation towards three single jurisdictions had aroused the applause of the supporters of judicial hyper-specialization but also the reservations or jealousy, so to speak, of other Courts that had been excluded from the distribution. The reaction of the latter has not been long in coming.
The CGPJ Agreement attributes exclusive jurisdiction to hear actions in industrial property, in addition to the Courts of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia that already had it, to these others:
| ANDALUSIA | Commercial Court 1 Granada |
| GALICIA | Commercial Court 1 A Coruña |
| CANARY ISLANDS | Commercial Court 1 Las Palmas |
| BASQUE COUNTRY | Commercial Court 2 Bilbao |
The new competency framework will come into force on January 1, 2019 and it would not be strange if this vacatio produce some movement in the forum.
As a curiosity, it should be added that the CGPJ has reported unfavorably on the designation of specialized Courts in other Autonomous Communities that had requested it. The question remains open as to whether this expansion of objective competition reinforces or on the contrary dilutes judicial specialization in industrial property litigation. Not because of the different benefits or limitations that some Courts or others may present, but because of the convenience of concentrating matters in the smallest possible number of Courts in order to favor specialization.
Author Antonio Castan
Visit our web page: http://www.elzaburu.com/
