Unlike the situation in other countries, computer programs are not patentable in Spain since the Spanish Patents Law expressly excludes them from the list of patentable inventions.

A special chapter is devoted to computer programs in the 1996 Spanish Intellectual Property Law. Computer programs and their accompanying documentation are protected as copyright and, with certain exceptions, are treated in the same way as literary works.

In Spain, copyright exists from the moment the related work is created, without any registration being required and with automatic protection therefore being granted. However, the option of filing the work with the Intellectual Property Register, as evidence to be used against third parties in the event of copyright infringement, exists.

Computer programs are protected for 70 years from the death of their author if the author is a natural person. If the author is a legal person, the period of protection is 70 years from January 1 of the year following the year in which the program was lawfully published or of the year of its creation if it was not published.

Like any literary or artistic work, computer programs create various economic and "moral" rights. Moral rights cannot be waived or assigned. They entitle the author to decide, amongst other things, whether his work is to be published and how, to demand that he be recognized as the author of the work and that the integrity of the work is observed, to alter the work and to withdraw it from the marketplace.

In Spain the author of the work is assumed to be the owner of the rights unless the work was created in the course of his employment. In this case, the owner of the copyright will be the commissioning party.

However it should be noted that the Proposal of Community Directive on the Patentability of Inventions Implemented by Computer is currently being prepared.These inventions are defined as those that may only be implemented using a computer, computer network or other programmable apparatus.

After this Directive has been approved, the 25 EU countries should adopt the provisions necessary for its compliance, within the term established for the purpose.