When the founder of a family company passes away, the brand (the trademark) and the works bearing their mark (logos, designs, content) do not automatically belong to their children the way many people assume. Inheriting copyright and trademarks turns on one seemingly small question that decides everything: is that intellectual property registered in the name of the deceased individual, or in the name of the company? Answer it wrong, and a family can lose control of the very brand it built, or let a trademark lapse in the middle of a dispute.
Your father or mother has just left behind a family company and a brand your customers know well. Can the children keep using that trademark, and who is its real owner? If the logo and brand identity were designed by the deceased's own hand, where do the copyrights sit? And when the heirs are scattered across different places, some living abroad, who steps in to handle the transfer or renewal of the trademark? These are problems many families discover only when it is already late, just when they need to renew, assign, or stop someone else from using the brand. The article below analyses how trademarks and copyright are inherited, the order of steps to follow, and the risks that leave a family's intellectual property "frozen."
Are copyright and trademarks part of the estate?
The short answer is yes, but not in full, and each type of right follows its own mechanism. The starting point is that civil law treats intellectual property rights as a form of property.
Because they are property, intellectual property rights with economic value form part of the deceased's estate and pass to the heirs, just like real estate or bank deposits. Copyright, however, has a distinctive feature: it comprises two groups of rights with very different fates. Copyright in a work consists of moral rights and economic rights. The economic rights (the rights to reproduce, distribute, perform, make derivative works, and communicate the work to the public) are the "money-making" part, and this is precisely the part that can be inherited.
The moral rights are more complex. Most moral rights are tied closely to the author as an individual and are protected indefinitely: the right to title the work, the right to be named under a real name or pseudonym, and the right to protect the integrity of the work. These cannot be inherited: descendants may not remove the deceased's name from a work or alter it at will. Only one moral right may pass to heirs, namely the right to "publish the work or authorise others to publish it."
In other words, the heirs enjoy the income and the right to authorise use of the work for the remaining term of protection, but they cannot touch the author's identity. Trademarks follow a different logic: a trademark becomes an inheritable property right only once it has been registered and a Certificate of Protection granted. A brand used in practice but never registered gives rise to no "industrial property right in a trademark" to inherit (save for well-known marks). This is a distinction many families overlook: a work is protected automatically from the moment of creation, whereas a brand must be registered before there is anything to pass on.
The crux for a family company: registered to the individual or to the company?
This is the point that decides the entire approach, and also where families most damagingly get it wrong. The law allows the owner of a trademark to be an organisation or an individual, meaning a family business's trademark may be registered in the company's name, or in the founder's own name. These two cases lead to two completely different inheritance paths.
If the intellectual property is registered to the individual who died, it is that person's estate and is divided among the heirs under a will or under the law. But if the intellectual property is registered to the company, it belongs to the legal entity (the company itself) and does not fall within the founder's personal estate. In that case, what the heirs receive is not the trademark or the copyright, but the deceased's capital contribution or shares in the company. They control the intellectual property indirectly, through their status as a member or shareholder.
A similar rule applies to a single-member limited liability company when the individual owner dies (Article 78), and to a shareholder of a joint-stock company: the heir of the deceased shareholder becomes a shareholder of the company (Article 127). In all three cases, the trademark and the copyright "stay" with the company; what shifts is ownership of the capital. The table below summarises the two paths:
| Criterion | IP registered to the individual (the deceased) | IP registered to the company |
|---|---|---|
| Legal nature | Part of the individual's estate | An asset of the company (a legal entity) |
| What the heir receives | Direct ownership of the trademark / copyright | Capital contribution or shares, with indirect control through the company |
| Main procedure | Estate declaration → recording the new title holder | Estate declaration for the capital → registering the change of member / shareholder |
| Legal basis | Civil Code, Law on Intellectual Property | Law on Enterprises (Articles 53, 78, 127) |
So the first thing to do is not to argue over who gets the brand, but to check whose name is recorded as owner on the trademark Certificate of Protection and on the copyright registration certificate (if any). A single line of a name on a document will determine the whole direction of the case.
The order of steps: from estate declaration to recording the new owner
Once you have established whether the intellectual property belongs to the individual or the company, the process usually follows these steps:
- List the assets and identify the owner. Search all registered trademarks and any copyright registration certificates, and determine whether each asset is registered to the individual or to the company. Record the expiry date of each trademark certificate.
- Declare or agree on the division of the estate. The heirs execute an estate declaration or an agreement on the division of the estate at a notarial office; the procedure includes a 15-day public posting step. Personal documents issued abroad (death certificates and documents proving family relationships) must be consularly legalised and translated with notarisation before submission.
- Record the new owner. For a trademark registered to the individual, the heir files a request to record the change of the Certificate of Protection holder with the state authority for industrial property rights. For copyright that holds a registration certificate, update the owner accordingly. If the intellectual property is registered to the company, the company registers the change of member / shareholder and amends its enterprise registration within 10 days of the conclusion of the estate settlement.
- Continue using, renew, or assign. Once lawfully recorded as the owner, the heir may continue to use the asset, renew its validity, or assign it. Note: assigning a trademark must be done by a written contract and takes effect only once registered with the state authority for industrial property rights (Articles 138 and 148).
Legal risks and common mistakes in practice
Most trouble comes not from the law being complex, but from mistaken assumptions within the family. Below are the situations that recur again and again.
The belief that "the family brand can simply keep being used." If the trademark is registered to the company, the heirs do not own it directly: they inherit only the capital contribution or shares. Where the company has members or shareholders outside the family, the rights to the brand belong to the company, not automatically to the founder's children.
A logo designed by the founder but never transferred to the company. Many family businesses use a brand identity drawn by the owner personally, yet never carried out the procedure to transfer the copyright to the company. When that person dies, the economic rights in the logo remain part of the personal estate, meaning the company may have to negotiate with the heirs to keep using its own logo. This is a very common source of internal conflict.
Co-heirs who disagree, or who live in different countries. When a trademark or the author's economic rights become the joint property of several heirs, every decision to exploit, renew, or assign requires consensus. It takes only one distant heir who will not cooperate for the intellectual property to be "frozen": no one can exploit it, while competitors may exploit the gap.
Forgetting that copyright has a term. An author's economic rights do not last forever: for most works, the term of protection is "the whole life of the author and fifty years following the year of the author's death" (Clause 2, Article 27). Once this term ends, the work belongs to the public and anyone may use it, an important point when valuing the estate.
How DEDICA handles the inheritance of a family company's intellectual property
With intellectual property, a small procedural slip can shake an entire brand, so reviewing everything from the outset matters most. DEDICA reviews the family's and the business's entire intellectual property portfolio (which trademarks and works are registered to whom, how long they remain valid, and whether the rights have been transferred to the company), then plans the inheritance approach suited to each case: estate declaration and recording of the new title holder where the asset is registered to the individual, or handling through capital contributions and shares where the asset belongs to the company, while renewing in good time so that no trademark is lost while the file is still pending.
For families with heirs living abroad, DEDICA acts under a power of attorney to work with the notarial office, the intellectual property authority, and the business registration authority, guides the preparation and consular legalisation of documents from overseas, and takes part in negotiating or resolving disputes among co-heirs, so that you need not fly back and forth while still keeping control of your family's brand.
Conclusion
To inherit the copyright and trademarks of a family company, first determine whether the intellectual property is registered to the deceased individual or to the company: that answer decides the entire approach. If registered to the individual: (1) declare and divide the estate at a notarial office; (2) record the change of the trademark Certificate of Protection holder and update the copyright owner; (3) renew the trademark on time. If registered to the company: the heirs receive the capital contribution or shares and register the change of member or shareholder, while the intellectual property stays with the company. The three mistakes that most often cost families their rights are: confusing the company's intellectual property with the personal estate, leaving a logo whose copyright was never transferred to the company, and missing the trademark renewal window. The first action is very simple: list the intellectual property assets and check the expiry date of each certificate right away.
If your family has just been left a brand, a company, or works of value, DEDICA can review the intellectual property portfolio, identify the right path for each asset, renew and record new ownership, and act under a power of attorney even for heirs living abroad. Contact DEDICA for advice from a lawyer on your specific situation before a trademark lapses or a dispute arises.
This article is for reference based on the law in force at the time of writing. Each case has its own facts; please consult a DEDICA lawyer for accurate advice on your situation.
