Macau Yearbook 2013 - Macao Yearbook

Macao Yearbook 2013relevant organisations. The Macao Customs Service is responsible for enforcement of legislationand implementation of punitive measures regarding intellectual property rights, to enhance faircompetition and combat counterfeiting, thus promoting compliance with intellectual property rightsand authorship regulations.Intellectual Property Rights SystemThe Copyright and Related Rights Code and the Industrial Property Law are currently the twomajor pieces of legislation related to intellectual property rights in Macao.Copyright and Related Rights CodeIn Macao, copyright is regulated by the 27 April 1966 Decree-Law No. 46980, published in theGovernment Gazette on 8 January 1972. Law No. 4/85/M was then promulgated on 25 November1985 and supplemented by Decree-Law No. 17/98/M promulgated on 4 May 1998. On 16 August1999 the Copyright and Related Rights Law (Decree-Law No. 43/99/M) was gazetted and cameinto effect on 1 October of the same year, protecting copyright under clearly defined terms. Theregulation provides full protection for works of literature, drama, music and art, movies andtelevision broadcasting, as well as all original productions, and it fulfils the requirements of TradeRelated Intellectual Property Rights formulated by the WTO.To comply with the international protection standards arising from the special features of themodern information society, in 2012 the Government amended the Copyright and Related RightsLaw approved by Decree-Law No. 43/99/M to produce Law No. 5/2012, which came into effect on1 June in the same year. The amended Copyright and Related Rights Law enhances the rights andprotection of copyright holders, art workers and producers, providing them with the rights of Internettransmission, distribution and commercial lease. At the same time, the law also adequately modifiesthe relevant criminal penalty to further protect copyright in a digital environment. Together, thesemeasures more closely aligned Macao’s copyright system with the latest international protectionstandards.In Macao, copyright is an inherent right. A piece of work, whether issued, published, used oroperated, already lends copyright to the author upon completion, allowing the author to enjoy relatedlegal protection, even without registration. In general, copyright in Macao expires 50 years afterthe death of the author, including for works issued or published after death. However, the periodof protection of individual pieces of work varies, depending on their type.The Industrial Property Rights SystemThe current Industrial Property Law was promulgated on 13 December 1999 and came into effecton 6 June 2000, replacing the previous rules and regulations. It was only then that Macao had itsown industrial property rights laws and was able to completely fulfil its international duties. TheIndustrial Property Law offers protection in the following eight areas: patents, including inventionpatents and utility patents; certificates of complementary protection for drugs and herbal medicines;topology maps of semiconductor products; industrial designs and new industrial products;170