Short answer. Yes. Article 722 says the author and composer shall have the ownership of their creations even before the publication of the same, the painter, sculptor or other artist has dominion over their work even before it is copyrighted, and the scientist or technologist owns a discovery or invention even before it is patented.
What the law says
The scientist or technologist has the ownership of his discovery or invention even before it is patented.
Civil Code, Article 722 — Rights Before Publication Or Patent. Read the full provision →
Ownership begins with creation
Article 722 answers a common fear of writers, artists and inventors: that they own nothing until they register or publish. The law says the opposite. The author and composer shall have the ownership of their creations even before the publication of the same. The painter, sculptor or other artist shall have dominion over the product of his art even before it is copyrighted. The scientist or technologist has the ownership of his discovery or invention even before it is patented. Ownership, in other words, springs from the act of creation, not from a stamp or a certificate obtained afterwards.
What changes once you register or publish
Registration and publication are not what create your right; they change how it is protected. The article itself notes that once works are published, their rights are governed by the Copyright laws. So the pre-registration ownership Article 722 recognises is the starting point, and the specialised statutes, the Intellectual Property Code for copyright and patents, supply the detailed, enforceable protections, terms and remedies once you take those steps. Patenting an invention, in particular, is what secures the exclusive right to exploit it against the world; owning it beforehand does not by itself give you that monopoly over everyone else.
What owning it early does and does not give you
Owning your creation before publication means it is yours to keep, use, withhold or transfer, and nobody can treat an unpublished manuscript or an unpatented device as ownerless. But this ownership is not the same as the exclusive statutory monopoly a patent confers. Crucially, an idea kept to yourself is protected partly by secrecy; the law rewards disclosure with the stronger patent right precisely because you give up that secrecy. So if you show your invention around without protecting it, ownership of your own copy does not stop others who independently reach the same idea from patenting it first.
Protecting what you already own
The practical lesson is that early ownership is real but fragile, and it should shape how you handle the work before you go public. Keep dated records of authorship and development, control who sees unpublished or unpatented material, and use confidentiality agreements where you must share it. When you are ready, publication and registration under the copyright and patent laws convert your underlying ownership into rights you can enforce with clear remedies. Article 722 assures you that you are not empty-handed in the meantime, but it is the specialised registration that gives your ownership its teeth against copyists and rivals.