Legislation

Legal basis: no special laws concerning the protection of inventions and trademarks. Italian legislation on patents, trademarks and models is applicable to the Vatican City State, subject to it not being contrary to precepts of divine right or to the general principles of canon law or to the treaties between the Vatican and Italy of February 11, 1929.

Domain names: there are no published regulations on domain name registration under the .va country code top-level domain name for the Vatican City State. More information will be provided in a future release.

Membership in international conventions: the State of the Vatican City is a member of the Convention of Paris (Stockholm Act), WIPO, and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Effective as of August 4, 2007, it ceased to be a member of the Hague Union.