ENG-2013 — Page 134

5

Commerce and Industry

Publicity and Promotional Events

The Innovation and Technology Commission's annual InnoTech Month features a wide range of activities to foster a stronger innovation and technology culture in the community. Activities. included roadshows, exhibitions, workshops, a carnival, industry conferences and seminars. The commission also collaborated with academia and non-profit-making organisations in supporting science competitions and activities to strengthen students' interest in innovation and technology. The Innovation and Technology Scholarship Award Scheme provides recognition to outstanding science undergraduates in local universities and encourages them to pursue innovation and technology as a career.

Protection of Intellectual Property Rights

Hong Kong maintains a robust regime for protecting intellectual property rights. With its comprehensive legislation, convenient registration systems, rigorous enforcement and creative public education programmes, Hong Kong has gained a reputation for effective protection of intellectual property.

Registration

The Intellectual Property Department is committed to providing high-quality and responsive registration services to the public. The 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 searches 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 (https://iponline.ipd.gov.hk).

By using the department's interactive services, owners of intellectual property rights or their agents can make changes directly to certain particulars of their registrations and applications recorded in the registers. These changes are updated instantly in the various registry records. The electronic services, particularly electronic filing, have been well received. In 2013, the proportions of electronic filings for trade mark, patent and design applications were 55 per cent, 65 per cent and 66 per cent respectively.

Trade Marks

In 2013, the Trade Marks Registry received 37,092 applications. During the period, 31,464 marks were registered, an increase of 19.3 per cent as compared with 2012. The principal countries/ areas out of the 107 filing applications were:

Hong Kong

Mainland

USA

Japan

France

13,596

8,020

3,723

2,143

934

United Kingdom

Taiwan

855

821

Switzerland

777

Germany

739

Korea, Republic of

655

The register had 323,244 registered marks by the end of the year.

98