MACAU SAR Law and Practice Contributed by: João Nuno Riquito, Bruno Almeida, Bernice Kwok and Kimberley Cheong, Riquito Advogados
ing that, the economic situation of this party, but is never less than MOP94,000. 8.3 Responsibility for Paying the Costs of Litigation Under Macau law, the losing party is responsible for the costs of litigation, including court fees, expert fees, and any other expenses arising from the proceedings, as well as for the payment of an amount arbitrated by the court in favour of the prevailing party considering the value of the proceedings and complexity of the case, which may be understood as partial reimbursement of the attorneys’ fees. 9. Alternative Dispute Resolution 9.1 Type of Actions for Intellectual Property The parties may engage in mediation, concilia- tion or arbitration as alternative ways to settle an intellectual property dispute. The new Arbitration Law (Law No 19/2019), which follows closely the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commer- cial Arbitration, came into force on 3 May 2020. However, the mentioned alternative dispute res- olutions are not commonly used for intellectual property infringement cases in Macau. 10. Assignment and Licensing 10.1 Requirements or Restrictions for Assignment of Intellectual Property Rights With regard to assigning an industrial property right, Article 11 of the Legal Regime of Indus- trial Property stipulates that industrial property rights may be assigned, totally or partially, free of charge or for consideration. The same Article regulates that an assignment inter vivos shall be
in writing, failing which the assignment shall be null and void. The same provision shall apply to rights deriving from applications for the granting of industrial property rights. No special restric- tions, beyond what is established by general rules, apply to assignments. According to Article 402 of the Civil Code, the assignment can be finished by a contract or any other legal instru- ment allowed by law. 10.2 Procedure for Assigning an Intellectual Property Right Pursuant to Article 11 of the Legal Regime of Industrial Property, there is no additional require- ment further to the general rules on assignment of rights and contractual positions. Article 57 of the Legal Regime of Industrial Property stipu- lates that, after the contract assignment, there is a burden of registration of the fact of assign- ment to better protect the right of the one who acquires (ex vi Article 57, Section 2). 10.3 Requirements or Restrictions to License an Intellectual Property Right Pursuant to Article 12 of the Legal Regime of Industry Property, except where there is express legal limitation, industrial property rights may, with or without consideration, be licensed for exploitation in whole or part and, when for a limited duration, for all or part of that duration. The same provision should apply to rights deriv- ing from industrial property rights applications, but a refusal to grant such rights shall imply the forfeiture of the licence. The exploitation con- tract licence shall be in writing, failing which the assignment is null and void (ex vi Article 212 of the Civil Code). As for assignments, there are no special require- ments for licensing. Article 13 of the Legal Regime of Industry Property stipulates some restrictions of the licensee. Unless otherwise
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