3
10
Germany (Federal Republic of), Greece, Hungary, India,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malawi,
Monaco, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, South Africa,
Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United
Kingdom, United States of America, Yugoslavia, Zambia,
Zimbabwe, the European Patent Office (applications for
European patents), the International Bureau of WIPO (inter-
national applications under the PCT). The UK patents registered
in Hong Kong are also recorded. The patent documents coming
from the sources indicated amount to over 96% of the world
total of currently published patent documents.
31.
In
The relevance to Hong Kong of these developments
in international cooperation must now be considered.
1979 a working group chaired by the Registrar General
recommended that Hong Kong should not establish its own
patent office but that the registration of UK patents
should continue. The obtaining of a grant of patent in the
UK is a lengthy and expensive process. The investigation
of a claim requires a degree of expertise not available in
Hong Kong. Establishing an original patent office in Hong
Kong would mean acquiring and training personnel at great
cost if the patent were to afford any worthwhile protection.
The working group concluded that such expense would be
unwarranted and would run counter to the trend in developed
countries of centralisation of the grant of patents. For these
reasons, it rejected the idea of an original patent office
for Hong Kong.
/ 31.
A
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