TNAG-2300-FCO40-3328-Chinese-copyright-law-implications-for-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 21

The

Patent Office

CJ Sainty Esq

Hong Kong Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London

SW1A 2AH

Direct line 071-438

4782

Our ref Your ref

Date

11 June 1991

Sea Saint

6

RESTRICTED

HKC031/19

Tel- out to HK,

fa (all)

file

new

Industrial Property and Copyright Department

Hazlitt House

45 Southampton Buildings London WC2A 1AR United Kingdom

Enquiries

071-438 4777

Telex 498086 PATNPT G

Fax 071-438 4780

Ra

126/6

what is the timetable for this?

CHINESE COPYRIGHT LAW: IMPLICATIONS FOR HONG KONG

Thank you for your letter of 6 June.

4

I think it would be wise to await responses to my letter of 30 May before informing Hong Kong that we are contemplating a bilateral, though it is certainly my own view that we should be going ahead on this front.

I am less enthusiastic about extending any such agreement to Hong Kong. It seems likely that additional complications would arise, possibly to the prejudice of our main objective of benefiting UK industry. At the technical level we would have to take account of the fact that, at present, Hong Kong law remains the 1956 UK Copyright Act (under provisions extended to Hong Kong in 1972 and 1979) which has now been repealed in respect of the UK. China would not therefore be getting the same level of protection in the UK and Hong Kong under any joint bilateral. Moreover Hong Kong, having declined to have the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 extended to it, is actively engaged in preparation for its own stand-alone copyright law the content of which is therefore necessarily indeterminate (albeit likely to be based closely on the 1988 Act). Again, the Chinese might see this as an impediment.

Spoke to Mr Tarnofsky,

Patent Office

o anked him to ensure that we

receive responses

(52016

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