MWC 2022 will be held in just two weeks, from February 28 to March 3, in Barcelona

This will undoubtedly be an important year for the fair which, after the unexpected cancellation of MWC 2020 due to the pandemic and the “hybrid” celebration (physical/digital) of the next edition of the congress in 2021, returns to the eminently face-to-face format in the facilities of the Fira de Barcelona.

 

As there have been no relevant cancellations on the part of the attending companies, it is expected that this edition will recover (or at least come close) to the activity and impact that this great congress had in the years preceding the pandemic.

It is to be expected that this “return” to the MWC as we knew it will also bring with it a return to litigation conflicts between companies regarding possible infringements of industrial property rights (which last year experienced a notable decline, undoubtedly due to the significant absence of participants at the congress and the “decaffeinated” format in which it was held). In anticipation of these conflicts, and as it has been doing for years, the Commercial Court of Barcelona (together with the EU Trademark Court of Alicante) has approved a “Protocol for on-call service and rapid action” in order to ensure that requests for precautionary measures and preliminary proceedings relating to infringements of industrial property rights in the context of the congress are processed expeditiously. Thus, among others, the Court has undertaken the following essential commitments:  

• To resolve on the same day of their presentation (24 hours) the requests for protective letters aimed at avoiding the adoption of precautionary measures without hearing the defendant company
• And to resolve within two days (48 hours) the requests for preliminary proceedings, verification of facts proceedings and precautionary measures (in this third case, provided that they are requests without hearing the defendant and the latter has not filed a protective letter, in which case a hearing would be scheduled within 10 days)  .

ELZABURU has attended the last editions of the MWC with its clients and has a solid experience in handling legal disputes in the context of the fair (in fact, by way of example, of the 18 cases that went to Court in the MWC 2021 edition, 15 of them were handled by ELZABURU). This year, once again, the Firm is at the disposal of its clients to advise, assist and defend them in relation to any conflict that may arise in the context of MWC 2022 related to infringement of industrial property rights.  

Author: Maria Cadarso Díaz de Entre-Sotos

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