.E.G 58
ID:0714384780
The Patent Office
05 AUG 93
16:23 No.010 P.02
24/7
Annadele Bouch
Hong Kong Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
Direct line 071-438 4756
Our ref.
Your ref
Date
IPP 36862
5 August 1993
Dear Annandale
COPYRIGHT ACT 1956: HONG KONG
HKC 031/15
Av. 1993
Intellectual Property Policy Directorate
Hazlitt House
45 Southampton Buildings London WC2A 1AR United Kingdom
Enquiries
071-438 4777
Telex 498040 PATOFF G
lax 071-438 4780/4713
1. Thank you for letting me have sight of your proposed letter to Hong Kong.
2.
As I said over the phone, I entirely agree that it is not possible to make an Order extending the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 to Hong Kong. However, for the purpose of protecting copyright owners against inclusion of their works in cable programmes and extending copyright protection to the cable programmes as well, which is all, I think, that Hong Kong is interested in doing, only those parts of the 1984 Act which amended the Copyright Act 1956 need to be extended to Hong Kong. While the 1956 Act was in force in the UK, section 31 of the 1956 Act could, I think, have been used to achieve this. 3. The 1956 Act has now, of course, been replaced in the UK by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which came into force as far as copyright law is concerned on 1 August 1989. Schedule 1 of the 1988 Act deals with various transitional provisions and savings, paragraph 36(2) being that which ensures that the orders extending the 1956 Act to Hong Kong before commencement of the 1988 Act remain in force. I know of two such orders, namely SI 1972 No. 1724 and SI 1979 No. 910. Your legal advisor has mentioned a third, the Copyright (Computer Software) (Extension to Territories) Order 1987 but I have not been able to check this yet. (We do not have a copy here, presumably because FCO were responsible for making it.)
4.
Paragraph 36(2) also allows some variation of these orders. I am not sure whether your legal advisor has ruled out being able to use these retained powers of variation to these orders in order to extend the amendments introduced to the
An Executive Agency of the Department of Trade and Industry
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