5.
A spokesman for the Trade and Industry Branch said: "The draft Registered Designs Bill is in line with prevailing international standards on intellectual property rights protection, such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under the World Trade Organisation, and the relevant international intellectual property conventions.
"In preparing the draft Bill, we have taken into account the recommendations made by the Law Reform Commission in its report (January 1994) on reform of the law relating to copyright, which was formulated after extensive consultations.
"The draft Bill also reflects the agreement reached in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group in November 1995 on localisation of law proposals.
"The Basic Law provides that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government shall formulate its own policies on and protect by law intellectual property rights. This draft Registered Designs Bill will provide a modern, local and independent registered design system in Hong Kong", the spokesman added.
Some of the main legislative proposals include:
A design will be registrable if it is new.
Any original owner of a design is entitled to file an application for design registration.
Hong Kong will establish an independent Designs Registry. The proposed Hong Kong design protection system requires no substantive examination. There will be a formality examination only.
The period of protection of a design registered with Hong Kong Designs Registry will be for an initial period of five years. Registration may be extended for four periods of five years each upon payment of the prescribed renewal fee. The maximum duration of protection therefore will be 25 years.
After the commencement of the new law, designs already registered in the United Kingdom will be deemed as Hong Kong registered designs for continuity.
"We will be inviting the organisations we are consulting to attend a seminar to be held on December 16 from 4 pm to 6 pm in the Conference Hall of the New Annexe, Central Government Offices.