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Commerce and Industry
the e-filing system enables intellectual property owners and agents to file their applications securely and to make changes to certain particulars of their registrations and applications directly. In 2020, 77 per cent, 97 per cent and 81 per cent of applications for trademarks, patents and designs respectively were filed electronically.
Trademarks
The Trade Marks Registry received 33,708 applications in 2020, an 8 per cent drop on 2019. It registered 34,743 marks, taking the number of registered marks to 460,805 by end-2020. Of the 107 countries and regions that filed applications, the principal ones were:
Hong Kong
Mainland
14,246
5,278
United Kingdom
716
France
642
US
3,429
Germany
626
Japan
2,361
Switzerland
613
Korea
1,105
Taiwan
497
In June, the Trade Marks (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 was enacted, providing a legal basis for the application to Hong Kong of the international registration system under the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks. The government is proceeding with the other preparatory work necessary to apply the protocol to Hong Kong, including preparing subsidiary legislation and setting up the required information technology system.
Patents
The government's new original grant patent system provides a direct route for applicants to file standard patent applications in Hong Kong that are subject to the Patents Registry's substantive examination. The existing re-registration system is retained to grant standard patents based on corresponding patents granted by one of three designated patent offices, namely the China National Intellectual Property Administration, UK Intellectual Property Office, and European Patent Office in respect of patents designating the UK. The short-term patent system has also been refined, enabling short-term patent owners or third parties having a legitimate interest in the validity of a patent to ask the registry to carry out post-grant substantive examination.
The registry received 21,302 standard patent (by re-registration), 254 standard patent (by original grant) and 689 short-term patent applications in 2020. It granted 7,658 standard patents (by re-registration) and 729 short-term patents, respectively 12.9 per cent and 40.2 per cent higher than in 2019.
Designs
In 2020, the Designs Registry received 2,015 applications to register 3,878 designs and registered 5,045 designs, a 10.2 per cent increase from 2019.
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