ENG-1998 — Page 165

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

received, of which 13 772 were in respect of goods and 3 859 in respect of services. In all, 13 578 marks were newly registered in 1998, an increase of 7 per cent compared with 12 680 in 1997. The principal places of applicants' origin were:

USA

Hong Kong

Japan

UK

Germany

3 346

2 645

France Switzerland

1 382

Italy

895

703

British Virgin Islands China

676

593

505

307

277

The register had a total of 109 376 marks at December 31, 1998.

Patents

The Patents Ordinance provides for the grant of standard patents based on patents granted in the State Intellectual Property Office, China, the UK Patent Office or the European Patent Office (in respect of patents designating the UK). It also provides for the grant of short-term patents. During the period, the Patents Registry received 19 139 standard patent applications under the Patents Ordinance and 2 434 were granted. There were also 113 applications for grant of short-term patents, of which 51 had been granted by December 31.

Registered Designs

The Registered Designs Ordinance enables designs to be registered independently in the HKSAR. In 1998, the Designs Registry received 1 660 applications for registration of 2 348 designs, comprising 1 375 single-design applications and 285 multiple-design applications. During the period, 2 712 designs were registered.

Copyright

The copyright regime in the HKSAR is in line with the prevailing international standards and norms, for example, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights under the World Trade Organisation. Hong Kong protects any literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works; published editions; sound recordings, films, broadcasts, cable programmes; and performers' performances. Under the Copyright Ordinance, the economic right of copyright owners and performers has been enhanced to cover copyright works and performances made available to the public through the Internet or similar digital environment.

Public Education

Recognising the importance of long-term educational efforts to raise public awareness of and respect for intellectual property rights, the Intellectual Property Department works with the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Society and other international, public and private intellectual property institutions on a series of public education programmes with the intellectual property theme.

The Hong Kong and Mainland Intellectual Property Symposium 1998 brought together intellectual property officials, practitioners and entrepreneurs from the Mainland and the HKSAR to exchange their experiences, views and ideas on the protection of intellectual property rights. Over 139 participants attended this three- day seminar held in Shenzhen from April 22-24, 1998. The Asian Regional Symposium on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights under the TRIPS

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