The Board of Directors of the Portuguese IP Office (INPI) has decided to eliminate the addresses or domiciles of natural persons from the database of industrial property rights accessible on the Internet. The change will be applicable only to natural persons and, according to INPI, is due to the impediments provided for in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), namely the principle of minimum intervention provided for in the GDPR.
The INPI considers that the obligation of publicity is fulfilled by revealing only the name of the applicants of the industrial property registrations. When access to the address or domicile is deemed essential (e.g. for the purposes of legal action or appeal), any third party may request to the INPI a certified information, provided that they are based on a direct, personal and legitimate interest.
It should be recalled that at the end of 2015 INPI had already eliminated from publication in the Industrial Property Bulletin all the addresses of applicants for industrial property registrations, a practice that ended up being transferred to the text of the Industrial Property Code approved in 2018 (Decree-Law No. 110/2018 of 10 December).
For more information or any question please contact us (sgcr@sgcr.pt).
