As tourism, mainly from mainland China, rebounds in Macau, the intellectual properties involved in the special administrative region’s (SAR) booming gaming industry have made headlines in 2023 and 2024.

In July 2023, Inside Asian Gaming reported that Wynn Macau had agreed increase the amount it would pay its parent company, Wynn Resorts Ltd., for the use of the company’s IP, from a maximum of US$75.1 million to a maximum of US$115.1 million. The agreement, the publication said, covers certain trademarks, domain names, “Wynn”-related trademarks, copyrights and service marks used in a variety of goods and services.

“At the time when the original annual cap for the Intellectual Property License Agreements of US$75.2 million was set on December 30, 2022, Macau was still subject to various public health control measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Wynn Macau said in a statement.

“Since the relaxation and elimination of most Covid-19 pandemic-related protective measures over the course of December 2022 and January 2023, the Company has noticed an improvement in business and financial performance. The original annual cap is insufficient to satisfy the increasing demand for the transactions to be contemplated under the Intellectual Property License Agreements for the year ending December 31, 2023.”

Inside Asian Gaming reported that Wynn Macau reported operating income of US$47.1 million and Adjusted Property EBITDAR of US$155.8 million in the first quarter of 2023, reversing an income loss of US$98.3 million and an Adjusted EBITDAR loss of US$5.5 million in the same period in 2022.

In January 2024, Casino.org reported that Wynn Macau’s IP payments to its parent company for 2024 would be capped at US$140 million, according to filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the listing venue for shares of Wynn Macau.

Gaming is an increasingly important legal practice in Macau, one which is frequently either part of a firm’s intellectual property practice or at least closely integrated with IP work.

Macau has a number of well-respected full-service law firms, and a growing cadre of IP and gaming specialists. Ten different firms are represented on this year’s list of Macau’s IP Experts.

Macau’s IP regime does have some interesting quirks, lawyers at MdME Lawyers note in “10 things you probably do not know about IP in Macau,” published on their website. Trademarks are published before examination, for example, and use of a trademark for less than six months can support a priority claim.

Despite having its own patent registration system, Macau does not have a local examination office, due, the MdME lawyers say, to the relatively low number of patent application that are filed in Macau. Instead, there’s a protocol in place with China’s National Intellectual Property Adminstration (CNIPA) to conduct examination of Macau patents in mainland China by experienced professionals.

And, perhaps not surprisingly, patents relating to gaming can be protected in Macau. As a special administrative region of China, the firm notes, Macau is relatively autonomous, and the only jurisdiction in China where gambling is allowed. “Mainland China-based examiners are sometimes called to examine such subject matter despite not being allowed registration in China,” they say.

One of the leading firms in our inaugural list of Macau’s IP Experts in 2023 – DSL Lawyers – has integrated with what is perhaps today the SAR’s best law firm, MdME Lawyers, which placed three lawyers (João Encarnação, David S. Lopes and Carlos D. Simões) on our 2024 list.

Three different firms landed two lawyers each on our list: FC Law (Anabela Lei and Amy Wong), Manuela António Lawyers and Notaries (Tiago Assunção and Daniel da Silva e Melo) and RPmacau Intellectual Property Services (Alice Leong and Luís Reigadas).

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s Macau IP Experts. – GREGORY GLASS

Macau’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to in-house counsel in Macau, Asia and elsewhere and around the world, as well as China-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding Macau’s legal market.

All private practice intellectual property lawyers in Macau were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process.

The names of our 15 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.