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Registered Designs Bill
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Trade and Industry, Miss Denise Yue, in moving the second reading of the Registered Designs Bill in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Registered Designs Bill be read the second time.
The purpose of the Bill is to establish in Hong Kong an independent registered designs system which is in line with international standards and will continue through and beyond 1997.
Design articles occupy an important place in our economy and cover an extremely wide range of goods such as domestic appliances, furniture, textiles, fashion, jewellery and watches. In many cases, design is the decisive factor in the success of a commercial product. The investment in developing a design can be substantial and the commercial risk can be high. On the other hand, once a design has become a success, it costs only a fraction of the original research and development cost to reproduce it. Design protection is of great importance to Hong Kong and especially to the small and medium enterprises.
Hong Kong's existing registered designs law is dependent on that of the United Kingdom. Hong Kong does not have a separate designs registry. A design is automatically protected in Hong Kong if it is registered in the United Kingdom.
Article 139 of the Basic Law requires the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), on its own, to formulate policies on science and technology and protect by law achievements in scientific and technological research, patents, discoveries and inventions. Article 140 provides that the HKSAR Government shall, on its own, formulate policies on culture and protect by law the achievements and the lawful rights and interests of authors in their literary and artistic creation. So we need to establish an independent registered designs system in Hong Kong before 1 July 1997.
In doing so, we have to ensure that the registered designs regime meets the standards stipulated in the international intellectual property treaties and conventions which will continue to be applied to Hong Kong after 30 June 1997, namely the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.