ENG-1966 — Page 98

INDUSTRY AND TRADE

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allowed to proceed to advertisement. A total of 1,410 marks were registered, the principal countries of origin being:

United States

330

Hong Kong

316

Switzerland...

France

61

37

United Kingdom

210

The Netherlands

32

West Germany

188

South Africa

21

Japan

114

Italy...

16

The total number of marks on the register at 31st December 1966 was 21,181.

Hong Kong law does not provide for the original grant of patents, but the grantee of a United Kingdom patent may, within five years from the date of its issue, apply to have it registered in Hong Kong under the Registration of United Kingdom Patents Ordinance. Registration confers the same rights as though the patent had been issued in the United Kingdom with an extension to Hong Kong. A total of 319 patents were registered during the year, compared with 271 in 1965.

COMPANIES

The Companies Registry keeps records of all companies incor- porated in Hong Kong and also of all foreign corporations which have established a place of business in the Colony. Local companies are incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, which is based on the (now superseded) Companies Act 1929 of Great Britain. On incorporation a company pays a registration fee of $100 plus $2 for every $1,000 of nominal capital. In all, 1,384 new companies were incorporated during the year-128 more than the total in- corporated in 1965. The nominal capital of new companies registered during 1966 totalled $559,405,000, which was 29.6 per cent less than the corresponding figure for the previous year. Of the new companies, 12 had a nominal share capital of $5 million or more. At the end of the year there were 10,646 local companies on the register compared with 9,499 on 31st December 1965.

Companies incorporated outside Hong Kong are required to register certain documents with the Companies Registry within one month of establishing a place of business in the Colony. Only small filing fees are payable in such cases. During the year 47 such companies were registered and 29 ceased to operate. By the end of the year there were 588 companies registered from 36 countries