Our Firm
Our approach
A combination of rigour, efficiency and passion for our work.
ABG assists its clients in leveraging R&D investments. Having industry experience, we understand the needs and strategic concerns of companies, and how IP assets play an essential role in making businesses thrive.
Each project is efficiently handled by a dedicated team of professionals, with their technical and legal backgrounds matched to the client’s needs. Essential to our approach is communication and cooperation with clients, and a thorough understanding of their innovations and technology. This allows us to tailor the best solution for the IP needs of each client.
Rigorousness, and strict quality control of procedures and of timelines ensure that projects are correctly completed and tight deadlines met.
Our history
2003 - ABG Patentes is founded
ABG Patentes is founded by three experienced patent attorneys, Juan Arias, Francisco Bernardo and Vicente González, bringing a new model of IP firm in Spain. The beginning of a success story.
2004 - We start activity in Engineering & Physics
On request of our clients we start activity in Engineering & Physics, to complement the chemistry and biotech teams. Fernando Prieto joins ABG for leading the department. Our team grows.
2006 - We start providing services in Trademarks
We start providing services in Trademarks, adding a new enthusiastic team lead by Christine Weimann.
We create and coordinate the first CEIPI course on European Patent Law in Madrid, to train patent professionals as it is done in other European countries.
2007 - We open our Barcelona Office
We open our Barcelona office lead by Enric Carbonell, a professional with years of experience in industry.
2011 - Winners of the Managing IP Award
We are winners of the Managing IP award for Patent prosecution in Spain, which we also obtained in 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2020.
2015 - We open our Bilbao Office
We open our Bilbao Office headed by Iain A. McGeoch, to better serve clients in this dynamic and innovative area.
2018 - We launched our Legal & Litigation Department
In March 2018 we launched our Legal & Litigation Department to provide comprehensive legal advice. Laura Montoya, an attorney at law with almost 20 years of IP experience, heads the department from 2020.
We are now a full-service IP Firm, covering all aspects of IP and offering updated services adapted to business needs. To reflect these changes we modified our name from "ABG Patentes" to "ABG Intellectual Property".
2019 - Financial Times ranks ABG Intellectual Property as the only Spanish IP firm in “Europe’s Leading Patent Law Firms 2019
The prestigious newspaper Financial Times published on 9 July 2019 its special report Europe’s Leading Patent Law Firms 2019. ABG Intellectual Property is the only Spanish IP Firm included by FT in the elite of IP European Firms. We are proud to have been the only Spanish firm included in all the editions of the ranking.
2020 - Our Quality Management System (QMS) obtains ISO 9001 certification and our Information Security Management Systems gets ISO/IEC 27001
An independent auditing firm certifies that ABG´s Quality Management complies with ISO 9001 standard. We also obtain the ISO / IEC 27001 certification that validates our Information Security Management system.
In Memoriam
Francisco Bernardo
Co-Founding PartnerFrancisco had 30 years of experience in IP. He passed away on 31 october 2021
Vicente González
Co-founding PartnerVicente was a Spanish Patent and Trademark Agent and a qualified European Patent Attorney. He passed away on 6 February 2016
Advancing IP
ABG’s team believes in the importance of IP in today’s society.
Our partners are strongly involved in the development of the law, having contributed in the drafting of the Spanish Patent Law and Trade Secrets Law.
ABG’s professionals are active members in committees and associations that work to improve the IP system in Spain and Europe. We are leading members of EPI (the European Patent Institute of European Patent Attorneys) participating in its Biotech, Patent Practice and Patent Litigation Committees.
Together with CEIPI (the renowned International Center for the Study of Intellectual Property at the University of Strasbourg) the Spanish Patent Office and EOI we organized in Madrid the CEIPI two year course on European Patent Law. Since 2006 it has been a success, training more than 200 patent professionals in Spain.
We are also members of INTA (International Trademark Association), AIPPI (The International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property), LES (Licensing Executive Society), the Spanish Law Bar and COAPI (the Spanish Association of Industrial Property Professionals).
ABG’s professionals contribute to the development of the IP profession in Spain by teaching and sharing their experience through post-graduate courses in Spanish Universities, such as the Magister Lucentinus at the Universidad of Alicante, the “LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law and New Technologies (LL.M. IP & IT)” at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the “Master in ICT, Social Networks and Intellectual Property” of ESADE or the European Patent Law Course in Madrid (EPI-CEIPI).
Finally, ABG’s annual Seminar “IP Perspectives” is a reference for the profession.
Corporate Social Responsibility
In ABG honesty and high ethical standards are a core value.
Our relations with clients are based in trust, transparency and respect. We make sure that their interests prevail over ours.
We provide an inclusive working environment where everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential, where individual contributions are valued and where people are treated with courtesy, dignity and respect.
We provide a family friendly workplace, with flextime and support to allow employees arrange their work schedules in a way that accommodates their family life and personal needs.
Diversity
Every day we work to create an open and tolerant environment in which all of our employees can feel comfortable in their diversity and develop their full potential regardless of origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation or world view.
Older and younger colleagues, with and without disabilities, work side-by-side in our teams as a matter of course.
The international composition of our teams is another expression of our diversity, which we cultivate and appreciate as an enriching factor.
In its three offices, ABG currently unites employees from different nations under a single roof.
Our Accolades
We are proud contributors to Save The Children, a NGO working in more than 120 countries protecting children, giving them a healthy start and the chance to learn.
We also collaborate with Fundación Theodora, a NGO that contributes to the well-being of children in hospitals, hospices and specialized care centres. They bring artists to make their stay in these difficult moments a better experience.
We collaborate with Caritas, an organisation operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. Its mission is to work to build a better world, especially for the poor and oppressed.
We are proud contributors to The Food Bank, a non-profit charity organization whose purpose is to collect free food to distribute it, also free of charge, among charities dedicated to the assistance and direct care of people in need.
