INDUSTRY AND TRADE
23
the Trade Marks Registry, Registrar General's Department. Every mark, even if already registered in Britain or any other country, must satisfy all the requirements of the Hong Kong Trade Marks Ordinance before it may be accepted for registration. During the year 2,892 applications were received and 1,700 (including many made in previous years) were accepted and allowed to proceed to advertisement. A total of 1,540 marks were registered, the principal countries of origin being:
Hong Kong United States
•
***
Britain
...
Japan
·
West Germany
340 362
...
156
+
304 87
Switzerland France Australia Italy Denmark
...
77
42
23
...
22
14
The total number of marks on the register at December 31, 1974, was 30,288.
There is no original grant of patents in Hong Kong, but the Registration of United Kingdom Patents Ordinance provides that any person being the grantee of a United Kingdom patent may, within five years from the date of its issue, apply to have his patent registered in Hong Kong. Registration of a British patent in Hong Kong confers on the grantee of the patent the same privileges and rights as though the patent had been issued in Britain with an extension to Hong Kong. The privileges and rights run from the date of the patent in Britain, and continue as long as the patent remains in force there. A total of 700 patents were registered during the year, compared with 873 in 1973.
Companies
The Companies Registry keeps records of all companies incorporated in Hong Kong and also of all foreign corporations which have established a place of business in Hong Kong. Local companies are incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, which is still based largely on the (now superseded) Companies Act 1929 of Great Britain. However, following the first report of the Companies Law Revision Com- mittee in June 1971 the Companies Ordinance was amended from March 1973 to introduce more detailed requirements for prospectuses and bring the relevant provi- sions of the Companies Ordinance into line with those of the Companies Act 1948. In April 1973 the committee submitted its second report dealing with aspects of general company law which were not covered in the first report, and included recom- mendations on the subject of insider dealings.
During the year two important ordinances based on the recommendations in the first report were enacted-the Securities Ordinance 1974 and the Protection of Investors Ordinance 1974. A brief account of the provisions of these two ordinances will be found in Chapter 3 under 'Legislation relating to Securities and Investments'.
During the year drafting proceeded on the Companies (Amendment) Bill 1974, which was based upon recommendations of the second report of the committee relat- ing to company accounts and directors' reports. The effect of this legislation, which was enacted in December, is to bring the accounts provisions broadly into line with those now in force in Britain, and to require directors' reports to give much fuller information about the company's affairs. Several other items of legislation based on the recommendations in the committee's reports were under consideration at the end of the year.