Intellectual property law
Our expertise in intellectual property law in Monaco
The law firm 99 AVOCATS intervenes in the protection of creations and innovations, depending upon the professional profile, notably:
- Counselling, negotiation and drafting of contracts (confidentiality agreement, research and development contract, license agreement, transfer of intangible assets, exploitation of drawings, models or patents …)
- Strategy consulting (availability study, breach monitoring, protection strategy, filing strategy, protection of digital assets: domain names, identifiers on social networks)
- Managing of IP portfolio (application for trademarks, drawings, models, domain names…)
- Managing of online identity and reputation breaches
- Trademarks, designs and models proceedings (counterfeiting)
- Domain names proceedings (conflicts between domain names, between domain names and trademarks)
- Tort actions
Monaco Law
Monegasque IP
Monegasque intellectual property law is governed by four main laws: Law no. 1.058 of 10 June 1983 on trademarks and service marks, Law no. 606 of 20 June 1955 on patents, Law no. 607 of 20 June 1955 on designs and models, and Law no. 491 of 24 November 1948 on the protection of literary and artistic works.
The main intellectual property treaties are applicable, as Monaco entered most of the Agreements in the discipline. Monegasque intellectual property law is therefore developing according to international standards :
- Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property of 20 March 1883, revised;
- Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Trademarks of 14 April 1891 revised and Protocol ;
- Hague Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Industrial Designs, Geneva Protocol, Complementary Stockholm Act;
- Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks revised at Stockholm on 14 July 1967 and at Geneva on 13 May 1977;
- Munich Convention on the Grant of European Patents of 5 October 1973;
- Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure as amended, and Regulations under that Treaty
- Universal Copyright Convention and Protocols signed in Geneva on 6 September 1952;
- Berne International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 9 September 1886, as revised at Paris on 24 July 1971;
- Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations of 26 October 1961.
Applications for a patent, trademark, design or model, or a SOLEAU envelope (proof of technical or artistic creation, whether commercial or not) are made to the Monaco Industrial Property Office (MCIPO), which is attached to the Economic Development Department (DDE) - Industrial Property Division.
Sovereign Order no. 6.874 of 29 March 2018 harmonised procedures within the three areas of industrial property: patents; designs and models; trademarks and service marks.
In January 2025, Monaco adopted Common Practice PC14 of the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) "Trademarks contrary to public policy or morality".
Copyright and related rights
An update is envisaged by Bill No. 1045 on the recognition and ownership of intellectual works, tabled on 14 September 2021, which would replace Law No. 491 of 24 November 1948 on the protection of literary and artistic works, as amended.
This far-reaching reform is inspired by European Union legislation in this area.
Resale rights
Law no. 1.526 of 1 July 2022 reformed the resale right ("droit de suite"), the remuneration that authors of original works in the field of handwritten, graphic and plastic arts (paintings, collages, paintings, drawings executed entirely by hand by the artist, engravings, prints, etc.) receive when their works are resold by an art market professional (conditions in Monaco are equivalent to those governing other European art markets).
".mc" domain names
Law no. 1.482 of 17 December 2019 amending Law no. 1.383 of 2 August 2011 for a digital Principality created a fee for the allocation or renewal of ".mc" domain names.
The Network Internet Center (NIC Monaco) acts as the top-level registry for the Internet domain name addressing system corresponding to the Monegasque naming space and allocates domain names via the Registrars. (Ministerial Decree no. 2022-38 of 21 January 2022).
The NIC Monaco draws up the naming charter for the Monegasque ".mc" namespace, draws up the registration contracts defining the contractual relationship between the Registrar and the Registrars, manages the Monegasque ".mc" Internet domains, operates and maintains the DNS (Domain Name System) technical infrastructure enabling a domain name to be translated into an IP address and provides access to these domain names from the Internet.
Patents
The Principality has concluded a Working Agreement with the European Patent Organization (EPO) of 24 November 2016 to ensure the legal value of the invention. With the filing of a national patent application, it makes it possible to require the establishment by the European Patent Office of a search report on the state of the art and of a written opinion on patentability (Sovereign Ordinance No. 6.409 of 2 June 2017).
Sovereign Order no. 6.337 and Ministerial Order no. 2017-217 of 5 April 2017 have updated the national regulation on patents.