Commerce and Industry | 109
Registration
The Intellectual Property Department provides various electronic services to enable efficient and cost-effective registration and management of trade marks, patents and registered designs. The registers of trade marks, patents and designs are maintained in electronic format, allowing searching of relevant data 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 at any time. (http://iponline.ipd.gov.hk).
With the department's interactive services, the owners of registered rights and their agents can directly make changes to certain particulars recorded in the registers. These changes are updated instantly in the various registry records.
The electronic services, particularly electronic filing, have been well received and the migration rate to electronic filing has increased over the years.
Trade Marks
In 2009, the Trade Marks Registry received 24 754 applications. During the period, 22 500 marks were registered, an increase of 22 per cent as compared with 2008. Out of the total of 92 countries/areas filing applications, the principal places
were:
Hong Kong, China Mainland of China
9 454
France
572
4 620
United Kingdom
499
US
2 693
Japan
1 810
Taiwan, province of China Germany
470
462
Switzerland
588
British Virgin Islands
404
The register had a total of 238 908 marks by the end of the year.
Patents
The Patents Ordinance provides for the grant of standard patents based on patents granted in the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the United Kingdom Patent Office or the European Patent Office (in respect of patents designating the United Kingdom). It also provides for the grant of short-term patents, which may be registered following local formality examination procedures. In 2009, the Patents Registry received 11 857 standard patent applications and 5 625 were granted. There were also 551 short-term patent applications 474 of which were granted.
Registered Designs
In 2009, the Designs Registry received 2 234 applications for the registration of 3 818 designs. During the year, 3 850 designs were registered.
Copyright
The Copyright Ordinance provides protection for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, typographical arrangements of published editions, sound recordings,
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