Spanish decision on preliminary injunctions

This week and next I am in Munich doing research on comparative patent remedies at the Max Planck Institute.  My blogging will therefore continue to be sporadic until sometime in mid-July.  However, I thought I would call to readers' attention this post from yesterday's Kluwer Patent Law Blog by Miguel Montana, on a Barcelona Court of Appeals decision of June 10.  According to the post, when Spain amended its patent statute to conform with the 2004 EC Enforcement Directive it added a provision requiring a showing of, among other things, the "imminence" of allegedly infringing acts before a court may enter a preliminary injunction.  (See EC Enforcement Directive art. 9(1).)  The June 10 decision appears to interpret this as requiring a showing of "clear imminence," and sets forth various criteria to determine whether an infringement is imminent.  Although the court actually reinstated a preliminary injunction that the court of first instance had lifted, Mr. Montana suggests that the Barcelona court's interpretation may make it more difficult to obtain preliminary relief than was intended by the drafters of the Directive.  The post is definitely worth reading in its entirety.