XN000022-1997-02-26 — Page 18

Hong Kong's existing copyright law is mainly based on the copyright law in the United Kingdom. Article 140 of the Basic Law requires the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to have its own law to protect the achievements, and the lawful rights and interests, of authors in their literary and artistic creation. So we need to establish an independent copyright regime in Hong Kong before 1 July 1997.

In doing so, we have to ensure that the copyright regime meets the standards stipulated under the international intellectual property treaties and conventions which will continue to be applied to Hong Kong after 30 June 1997, namely the Berne Convention, the Universal Copyright Convention and the Phonograms Convention. In addition, as a separate member of the WTO now and after transition, Hong Kong needs to comply with the World Trade Organisation's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, In devising our own copyright regime, we also have to ensure that the copyright law we put in place can cater for technological advances and suit local circumstances.

The Law Reform Commission, after extensive public consultation, published a Report on the Law Relating to the Reform of Copyright in January 1994. The comprehensive Copyright Bill laid before Honourable Members has been drafted on the basis of the recommendations of this Report, and after taking into account the consensus reached in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group on the localisation of the copyright law, as well as the comments received during the public consultation on the draft Bill. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many respondents for the quality of their submissions. We have, as far as possible, incorporated their comments into the Bill.

Given the breadth and depth of the Bill, I do not propose to give a detailed account on each and every aspect covered. I will only outline briefly the major features of the Bill.

First, we propose that Hong Kong should adopt an open qualification system, whereby any original copyright works created by any person (including a legal person) or published by any person anywhere in the world would qualify for protection in Hong Kong. The open system not only provides for consistency of treatment with other forms of intellectual property such as patents and trademarks, it is also consistent with our open trade policy.

Secondly, we propose to adopt the Law Reform Commission's recommendation of decriminalising parallel importation but maintaining civil remedies. Honourable Members are aware that the regulation of parallel importation is an issue that has attracted much controversy and opposing views within the community. Indeed, this issue was the subject of a Motion Debate in this Council held last month. On that occasion, the Council resolved to ask the Administration to give careful weight to all public views expressed.