NATIONAL LAW IMPLEMENTING THE ENFORCEMENT DIRECTIVE

A. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY LAW

The Enforcement Directive was implemented in Spain by means of Law 19/2006 of 5 June, which increases the options for enforcing intellectual and industrial property rights and lays down the procedural rules to enable the application of several EU provisions (“Law 19/2006”).

Law 19/2006 has fi ve Articles, a transitional provision, a derogation provision and four fi nal provisions. The fi ve Articles amend the following Spanish laws (the “Spanish Intellectual Property (IP) Regulations”):

In Spain, IP rights are not regulated in a single code but in several laws that regulate copyright, trade marks, patents and industrial designs separately. The Civil Procedure Law contains the general provisions applicable to judicial procedures involving IP rights. Thus the main changes brought about by the Enforcement Directive were incorporated through the amendments to the Civil Procedure Law. The other amendments made to the sectorial legislation are complementary to the Civil Procedure Law, and homogeneous across the Spanish IP Regulations.

B. TRANSPOSITION ISSUES

The Enforcement Directive was transposed in Spain by Law 19/2006, which was approved on 5 June 2006 and entered into force on 7 June 2006. The Spanish legislator thus exceeded the deadline for transposing the Enforcement Directive (set for 29 April 2006) by a little more than one month.

The preliminary draft was prepared by the Justice Ministry and released for public consultation. Several entities involved in IP rights fi led their comments, such as the Spanish Music Producers Association, the Spanish Reproduction Rights Centre, the Spanish General Society of Authors and Publishers, and the Professional Association of Intellectual Property Agents.

Subsequently, the Spanish Council of State (which is the supreme consultative body of the Spanish Government) issued its opinion approving the preliminary draft. The draft was submitted to the Spanish Congress of Deputies and the Senate, which passed Law 19/2006.