ENG-2015 — Page 128

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Commerce and Industry

continuous public education programmes. This has earned the territory 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. Various electronic services of the department seek 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 data searches in Chinese or English through the internet at any time free of charge. 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.

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 registry records. The electronic services, particularly electronic filing, have been well received. In 2015, the proportions of electronic filings for trade mark, patent and design applications were 62 per cent, 81 per cent and 77 per cent respectively, marking increases of 6 per cent, 8 per cent and 8 per cent respectively compared with the previous year.

Trade Marks

In 2015, the Trade Marks Registry received 39,179 applications. During the period, 37,476 marks were registered, an increase of 9.4 per cent compared with 2014. Out of the 121 countries and regions that filed applications, the principal ones were:

Hong Kong

14,376

Mainland

8,241

US

3,901

Japan

2,158

South Korea

1,343

France

939

United Kingdom

Taiwan

907

851

Germany

730

Switzerland

666

year.

The register had 364,081 registered marks by the end of the

Patents

The Patents Ordinance provides for the grant of standard patents based on the corresponding patents granted by one of three designated patent offices, namely, the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the United Kingdom Patent Office and the European Patent Office (in respect of patents designating the United Kingdom). It also provides for the grant of short-term patents upon formality examination. The Patents Registry received 12,212 standard patent applications and 702 short-term patent applications in 2015. It granted 5,963 standard patents and 495 short-term patents, representing an increase of 0.5 per cent and a decrease of 5.2 per cent respectively compared with 2014.

In November 2015, the government introduced the Patents (Amendment) Bill 2015 into LegCo with a view to improving the patent system. Key proposals under the bill include establishing

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