Commerce and Industry | 117
Hong Kong Student Science Project Competition to nurture a new generation of young innovators.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
Hong Kong is committed to maintaining a a robust regime for protecting intellectual property
property rights. With its comprehensive legislation, convenient registration, vigorous enforcement and imaginative public education, Hong Kong has gained a well-earned reputation for effective protection of intellectual property.
Registration
The Intellectual Property Department has provided various electronic services in respect of registration of trade marks, patents and designs since 2003. The registrar of trade marks, patents and designs are all maintained in electronic format, enabling searching of Hong Kong's trade mark, patent and design records in Chinese or English through the Internet, at any time, free of charge (http://ipsearch.ipd.gov.hk). The electronic filing system also provides a secure and user-friendly environment for intellectual property owners or agents to file their applications electronically on a 24- hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week basis.
With the implementation of interactive services completed in 2006, the public can directly make changes to particulars of owners and agents of trade marks, patents and designs, extension of time of trade mark applications and registration of assignments and assents for registered trademarks and trademark applications via the electronic filing system if the information provided meets the validation rules of the system. These changes are updated in the registries' records instantly.
The electronic filing services have been well received. In 2007, the proportion of trademark applications submitted in electronic format rose to 58 per cent, an 11 per cent increase compared to the figure in 2006. For patent and design applications, the proportions of electronic filings were 38 per cent and 42 per cent respectively.
Trade Marks
The Trade Marks Registry is responsible for the registration of trademarks. In 2007, a total of 23 529 applications were received, comprising 14 869 single-class applications and 8 660 multiple-class applications. During the period, 19 395 marks were registered, an increase of 8.3 per cent compared with 17 907 in 2006. Ninety- two countries and places filed applications. The ones that filed the most were:
HK, China
7 926
Switzerland
743
US
3 563
Mainland China
3 185
United Kingdom
France
690
609
Japan
1 601
Germany
810
Taiwan, province of China
Italy
491
491
The register had a total of 217 692 marks by the end of the year.
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