Spain will have a copyright and related rights office

The Council of Ministers has agreed, at the proposal of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, begin the processing of the Draft Law to create the Spanish Office of Copyright and Related Rights.

He Government identifies that copyright and related rights are configured as the “key regulatory system” on which the fabric of companies and professionals that shape “one of the main assets of the Spanish cultural sector”: the cultural industries. Therefore, it is necessary to create this office whose objective will be strengthen administrative activity which corresponds to the State in intellectual property matter effectively, improving the current structure.

The Spanish Office of Copyright and Related Rights arrives at a key moment for the industry, since activity related to intellectual property has experienced a expansion caused by the consolidation of the Internet as the main communication channel public, the arrival of new blockchain-based digital technology assets, the need for Spain to have a greater presence in multilateral decision-making forums regarding intellectual property, or new hacking strategies that “take advantage of the combination of functionalities offered by social networks”, as highlighted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

In favor of modernization

According to the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the growing digitalization of society has shown that it is essential to continue advancing in the modernization of the Intellectual Property Registry and of the Sections of the Intellectual Property Commission. In fact, intellectual property constitutes a fundamental pillar of the cultural and creative industries, which provide a 3.4% of GDP, according to the Culture Satellite Account. The cultural sector constitutes a strategic sector of social and economic development, as well as a tool for social cohesion and the projection of a positive image of Spain in the world.

As a result of all this, before Preliminary draft law for the creation of the Spanish Office of Copyright and Related Rights, the State has been adding new skills and of great significance to those already existing, as a greater scope of supervision and control of the management entities and the new independent management operators. Other initiatives have been the attribution of the functions of national authority in the scope of orphan works o new functions of the First and Second sections of the Intellectual Property Commission, such as the procedure of direct blocking of pirate websites.