46. By the end of the year, the new Card Index System based on the system of sub-classification in use in the Patent Office, London, was almost completed, 16,084 marks having been indexed.
47. Table XIV gives statistics of registrations, renewals, etc., for the ten years 1950/51---1959/60.
Fees
48. Fees collected during the year amounted to $144,225.50, $6,560 more than in the previous year, and once again the highest total ever received.
Patents Registrable
PART V
PATENTS REGISTRY
49. There is no original registration of patents in Hong Kong, but patents granted in the United Kingdom may be registered under the Registration of United Kingdom Patents Ordinance (Cap. 42). This provides that the grantee of a patent in the United Kingdom, or any person deriving his right from the grantee may, within five years from the date of issue of the patent, apply to have it registered here, and that such registration shall confer the same rights as though the patent had been issued in the United Kingdom with an extension to Hong Kong. Applications must be accompanied by a certified copy of the United Kingdom specification and a certificate from the Comptroller General of the United Kingdom Patent Office giving full particulars of the issue of the patent.
Patents Registered
50. The number of patents registered during the year was 102, the highest number ever registered in a year. The total numbers of patents on the Register on 31st March, 1960 was 456. The number of patents registered annually since the Registry's post-war re-opening on 1st September, 1951, have been as follows:
1950/51
48
1955/56
31
1951/52
24
1956/57
44
1952/53
9
1957/58
80
1953/54
30
1958/59 ...
60
1954/55 ...
28
1959/60
102
Fees
51. Fees collected amounted to $5,046.80.
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