es wen
Chapter 7
Trade and economic issues
■ble the
This ga fac
It is
evoked
United
3 cour
a
mmon
quence id that
rights
ne will
s right
7.1.
The objective of this chapter is to examine briefly the role of patents in the economy and the justification which this presents for the continued protection of patent
rights.
The present system - statistical outline
7.2.
.
The tables at the end of this chapter give an indication of the levels of patent activity in recent years in Hong Kong and overseas.
17.3.
Table A sets out details of the patents registered in Hong Kong during the year ended 31 March 1992 according to the countries of domicile of the grantees with the previous six years' figures for comparison. 1067 patents were registered in 1991/92. Although only 15 registrations were in the name of Hong Kong residents, in fact the level of inventiveness in Hong Kong is higher because patents are sometimes registered in the name of a parent or subsidiary company resident abroad.
7.4.
Table B sets out a list of countries where applications for patents and utility models have been made by Hong Kong residents in 1991. These figures are supplied by WIPO. Again, these figures may not reflect the exact picture, for the reasons outlined in the previous paragraph.
7.5.
Table C sets out the total numbers of patents registered in Hong Kong for the past thirteen years. This shows an overall increase of 25% over that period.
7.6.
Table D compares the number of United Kingdom patents registered in Hong Kong in the past seven years with the number of European patents (UK) registered in Hong Kong. The numbers show a marked increase in the number of European patents (UK) registered and a corresponding decline in the registration of United Kingdom patents.
7.7.
Table E shows in a series of charts the number of patents registered in Hong Kong between 1980 and 1990 according to their class. The classification follows the International Classification of Patents established pursuant to the Strasbourg Agreement concerning the International Patent Classification (1971). There are eight charts, one for each of the "sections" or broad sets of classes into which patents are arranged by the international classification. The section titles, class symbols and sub-class symbols used in the charts follow those in the international classification. It should be noted that, as the numbers of registrations for inventions in the eight sections vary widely, different scales are used for the various charts within Table E.
7.8.
The class within which there have been the most registrations is class A 61. These statistics divide class A 61 into two groups; subclass A 61K on the one hand and the other subclasses within class A 61 on the other hand. There were 805 registrations of patents
53