Month: September 2026

Monaco is considering introducing a new online patent-filing platform and updating its intellectual-property laws as part of a wider effort to make the system more accessible to businesses, start-ups and researchers.

The potential reforms were discussed during a meeting in Monaco between European Patent Office President António Campinos and senior government officials, including Finance and Economy Minister Frédéric Cottalorda, Economic Development Director Julien Dejanovic and Jean-Pierre Santos, head of Monaco’s Industrial Property Division.

The most practical proposal is the possible introduction of the European Patent Office’s Front Office platform, an online system that allows users to file and manage patent applications digitally.

Already adopted or being introduced by 20 member states, the platform could give Monaco-based companies and inventors a more direct and standardised route into the patent system. However, no decision has yet been made: Monaco and the EPO will first examine the technical, operational and legal implications, as well as the potential benefits for local users.

Patent laws could also be reviewed

The discussions extended beyond digital filing to the broader modernisation of Monaco’s industrial-property framework.

Possible changes include updating regulations, incorporating recommendations developed through the EPO’s convergence programme and considering legislative reforms that would bring Monaco’s system closer to international standards and the European Patent Convention.

For businesses, the objective would be to create a system that is easier to use while providing greater legal certainty over the protection of inventions and intellectual property.

This could be particularly relevant to Monaco’s start-up and technology sectors, where smaller companies may have valuable ideas to protect but lack the specialised legal and administrative resources available to larger businesses.

The two sides will also explore closer cooperation in processing national patent applications and developing digital tools adapted to the needs of companies, innovators and researchers in the Principality.

Monaco has been a member of the European Patent Organisation since 1st December 1991. The relationship was strengthened in March 2025 with the signing of a bilateral cooperation agreement.

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Photo credit: Manuel Vitali, Government Communications Department

Monaco has called for a woman to be seriously considered as the next United Nations Secretary-General and thrown its weight behind a new declaration on sea-level rise, at the 81st General Assembly in New York. The Principality’s positions were set out by Minister of State Christophe Mirmand who led the delegation through the high-level week from 21st to 28th September and delivered Monaco’s address to the general debate on 25th September on behalf of Prince Albert II.

Mirmand told the assembly that, 80 years after the UN was founded, the candidacies of women should be seriously considered for its top job. António Guterres completes his second and final term as Secretary-General at the end of the year, and the search for his successor is under way. No woman has led the organisation in its history.

Seven candidates are currently in the running, four of whom are women. Based on the United Nations’ informal regional rotation, there is also a strong possibility that a candidate from the Latin American and Caribbean region will be selected.

A defence of international law

Speaking for the UN’s smallest member state — two square kilometres with one of its smallest populations — Mirmand built his address around the defence of international law. Each of the 193 members “has one voice, a single voice, and the same”, he said, equal in rights and in responsibilities. “When force claims to make the law, the smallest are the first to be threatened,” he told delegates. “When law frames force, the whole of humanity is protected.”

He also pressed for reform of the organisation, calling for a simpler, more effective UN, and for international governance of artificial intelligence grounded in law, ethics and human rights.

Sea-level rise declaration adopted

On 24th September, member states unanimously adopted a political declaration on sea-level rise, calling for urgent action to protect populations, territories and economies. Monaco supported the text, and Mirmand told the high-level meeting it should mark a beginning: “The declaration must not be a point of arrival. It must be a point of departure.” He said the Principality would “leave no state alone facing the rising waters”.

Monaco hosts the International Hydrographic Organisation and supports GEBCO, the global project to map the ocean floor, and Mirmand welcomed the entry into force of the High Seas Treaty, which the Principality was among the first countries to sign and ratify.

Talks with fellow small states

At a meeting of small European states co-hosted by Cyprus and Andorra, Mirmand said small states made up the majority of the UN’s membership and that the next Secretary-General must ensure reforms served them. He confirmed that Monaco will host the 2027 Games of the Small States of Europe, and held bilateral talks on the margins of the assembly, including with the foreign minister of Mauritania and the prime minister of Rwanda.

Mirmand closed Monaco’s general-debate address on the commitment made at the UN’s founding: “This promise will only be kept by the force of law, and not the right to force.”

Monaco Life is written by qualified journalists, writing original content. Sign up for our free newsletter, listen to our podcasts on Spotify, and follow us across Facebook,  Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok.

Photo credit: Loey Felipe, United Nations