MACAU SAR Law and Practice Contributed by: João Nuno Riquito, Bruno Almeida, Bernice Kwok and Kimberley Cheong, Riquito Advogados
Riquito Advogados Suite 1104 AIA Tower, 251A-301 Av. Comercial de Macau Macau SAR
Tel: +853 2838 9918 Fax: +853 2838 9919 Email: jnr@riquito.com Web: www.riquito.com
1. Intellectual Property Rights and Granting Procedure 1.1 Types of Intellectual Property Rights There are two main legal documents that regu- late intellectual property rights in Macau: • the Legal Regime of Industrial Property; and • the Copyright and Related Rights Regime. Intellectual property rights for the protection of inventions are regulated in the Legal Regime of Industrial Property, which includes, inter alia, protection via invention patent, via utility patent and via industrial model and design. An invention patent refers to a new technical solution for a product, a method or an improve- ment to existing technologies. A utility patent refers to new technical solutions for issues of configuration, structure, mechanism or disposition or their combination, in products. The registration of an industrial model or design refers to the protection of creations whose appearance represents, in whole or in part, a product by virtue of such features as lines, con- tours, colours, shape, textures and/or materials
used, or a combination thereof, which is aes- thetic and capable of being applied at industrial scale. Respective protection for these types of patents
is based on statutory law. 1.2 Grant Procedure Patents
For both invention patents and utility patents, the grant procedure is regulated by the Legal Regime of Industrial Property and consists of the following steps. • The applicant files a request with the Eco- nomic and Technological Development Bureau of Macau ( Direcção dos Serviços de Economia e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico , or DSEDT) and pays the application fees within eight working days from the submission date. • The DSEDT shall proceed with the formal examination of the application within two months from submission. • If no irregularities are found on formal exami- nation, the application will be published in the official gazette within 18 months from the date of application, but if there are irregulari- ties, the applicant is notified to rectify them within two months from the DSEDT’s notice.
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