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for up to six months (paragraphs 12.28, 12.32, 13.10, 13.33). The Hong Kong petty patent, when it is granted, will be published and open to inspection by the public. Notice of the grant, the first claim, the abstract and any drawings will be advertised (paragraphs 12.29 to 12.31, 13.34). The term of the petty patent is six years from the date of filing the application (paragraphs 12.26, 13.10, 13.24). The petty patent is subject to renewal after three years for a further period of three years (paragraph 13.25). The petty patent rights will arise on publication of the grant (paragraph 13.24).
International conventions
1.36.
Two international conventions which affect patents apply in Hong Kong; the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Convention) and the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT). Under the Paris Convention, an applicant for a patent or utility model (a term synonymous with petty patent) in one member state has a period of 12 months within which to make patent or petty patent applications for the same invention in other member states. The later applications are treated as having the same filing date as the first. If the convention did not apply in Hong Kong, a Hong Kong business wishing to protect its invention abroad in markets where the invention would be marketed would have to make patent or petty patent applications in those countries simultaneously in order to preserve the invention's claim to novelty (paragraphs 14.1 to 14.11). An applicant for the proposed Hong Kong petty patent will be able to claim priority from an earlier application made elsewhere in a member state (paragraph 13.26). Similarly, if the Hong Kong application were made first, the applicant can claim his Hong Kong filing date as the date of any later application he may make for a patent or petty patent in any member state (paragraph 13.10). The Paris Convention provides also that each member state must grant the same protection to nationals of other member states as it grants to its own nationals (paragraph 14.5).
1.37.
The other international convention, the PCT, gives an applicant the procedural advantage of being able to file an international application designating any one or more member countries in which he may wish to pursue a patent application. The applicant may have as long as 30 months within which to pursue an application to any designated member country and if his international application is in a prescribed form it cannot be rejected on formal grounds by any designated member country. An international application must be filed at the receiving office nominated for that purpose by the state of which the applicant is a resident or national (paragraphs 14.16 and 14.19). The United Kingdom Patent Office is currently the receiving office for Hong Kong residents. It is considered inappropriate for the UKPO to be the receiving office on introduction of the proposed patents legislation. We considered as an alternative mechanism the possibility of the Hong Kong Patents Registry being nominated as a receiving office to receive applications under the PCT from residents of Hong Kong. We recommend that the question of whether the Hong Kong Patents Registry could be a receiving office for applications from Hong Kong residents is a question which should be investigated (paragraphs 10.42 to 10.44).
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