A Beginner’s Guide to Hong Kong Intellectual Property Rights

Imagine you build a device to simplify cancer diagnosis and start scouting for investors in Hong Kong to market your product. You would be left high and dry if Hong Kong Intellectual Property rights did not exist to stop your competitors from stealing your design!
Simply put, intellectual property protection is essential for a business’s growth in an innovation-fuelled economy.
As a leading international trading centre, Hong Kong is home to several industries that need protection for their intellectual property. Hong Kong IP laws protect the IP assets of Hong Kong businesses from other market players acting in bad faith and trying to cash in on someone’s work.
Unsure how to navigate the landscape of Hong Kong IP laws? This guide is the perfect place to begin. Learn about IP registration, IP licensing, and the best practices for IP management.
Intellectual property includes everything that is a product of intellect and creativity.
The silhouette of a half-bitten apple on your iPhone, the novels Shakespeare wrote, or even this blog post you are reading are all examples of intellectual property. Whatever your business creates, such as websites, logos, inventions, and designs for particular processes or marketing collaterals, also qualify as intellectual property.
Legal protection for intellectual property stops others from stealing and profiting from your work. The right or protection is automatic for certain types of intellectual property. But for others, you have to apply for protection.
Here are various types of intellectual property rights that Hong Kong IP laws recognize:
The most common types of intellectual property rights include:
It is the right that the owner of any original work holds. The work doesn’t have to be of a certain aesthetic or creative value to receive copyright protection.
You get a copyright when you create any literary or artistic work. Examples include books, musical compositions, drawings, paintings, films, sound recordings, and software. In general, creative industries benefit the most from copyright protection.
Patents exist to protect inventions. A patent holder has the right to prevent others from using their invention for a limited time.
A trademark is any sign distinguishing your product or services from others.
Name, logo, design, shape of your product, sound, or smell can all be registered trademarks.
Industrial design is a shape or pattern that’s important for an industrial process.
The design for creating watches, jewellery, phones etc., are examples of industrial design.
A trade secret is any information that holds economic value for a business and provides a competitive edge.
Intellectual property rights are critical because:
You can protect your intellectual property under the relevant Hong Kong IP laws:
The ordinance governs copyrights in Hong Kong and grants the following protections to the copyright holders:
Term of protection: 50 years after the creator dies.
This ordinance governs the registration and protection of patents. It grants patents to inventions that are:
It also covers inventions which not eligible for patent protection, such as:
Term of protection: 20 years or 8 years, depending on the patent you hold.
This ordinance governs the registration and protection of trademarks. To register a trademark in Hong Kong, the sign must:
A registered trademark owner gets the exclusive right to use the trademark. Even though registration is not mandatory, not registering limits your legal protections and makes it harder to prove that you are the legal owner.
There are a few exceptions listed under the ordinance, such as:
The ordinance covers the registration and protection of registered designs.
Only new and original designs receive registration. Registering the design gives you an exclusive right to it during the term of protection.
Here’s an overview of the IP registration regime in Hong Kong:
Intellectual Property Department (IPD) is a statutory body responsible for registering and protecting trademarks, patents, and industrial designs. The Copyright Licensing Bodies Registry is also part of the IPD.
Here’s how to register different types of intellectual property in Hong Kong:
Copyright does not need any registration in Hong Kong.
As soon as you create any work, the copyright arises automatically.
Apply to the Patents Registry of the Hong Kong IP Department.
You can register for either:
You can submit the application online or in person, along with a description of the invention, scope, and drawings. Hong Kong also allows the re-registration of Chinese, EU, or UK patents.
You can apply to the Trade Marks Registry of the IP Department to register a trademark in Hong Kong. Applications can be online or in person.
The application should include a description of the trademark and the goods/services it covers.
The term of protection is 10 years.
You can protect your industrial designs by registering them with the Designs Registry of the Intellectual Property Department.
The application should include a description of the design and drawings.
The maximum protection term is 20 years.
Predicting the exact timeline for IP registration in Hong Kong is difficult as it depends on a case-t0-case basis.
Here’s an indicative timeline and costs:
Cost:
Information as of date. For more details, check the IPD website.
Timeline:
6 to 9 months if there are no objections or deficiencies in the application
Cost:
Information as of date. For more details, check the IPD website.
Timeline:
It can take up to six months for registered trademarks if there are no deficiencies or oppositions.
Otherwise, it can take up to 12 months.
Cost:
The application fee to register a single design is HKD 785 plus HKD 155 as an advertisement fee.
Fees go up if you wish to register more than one design.
Information as of date. For more details, check the IPD website.
Timeline:
Between 2 to 6 months
Commercialization and licensing IP is critical for a knowledge-based economy like Hong Kong. Here’s how you can do it:
You can execute a licensing agreement to allow another person to use your IP in exchange for royalties.
IP licensing agreements in Hong Kong are widely used for technology transfer. Here’s what you can license under an agreement:
You can grant:
Franchising refers to a specific licensing arrangement, typically used for trademarks and trade secrets. It is also a vehicle for technology transfer.
Using a franchising agreement, you allow other businesses to distribute your products or use your trade name to run their business in lieu of franchise/marketing fees.
For example, Burger King US executes franchising agreements that allow its franchisors to set up Burger King outlets in Hong Kong.
You can monetize your IP assets to generate revenue for the business. Here are some of the common methods:
Here’s an overview of the enforcement options available in Hong Kong to stop IP infringement:
Hong Kong IP laws allow civil and criminal enforcement.
The first step of civil enforcement involves writing to the infringer and ordering them to stop the activity.
If the infringer doesn’t stop, you can approach the trial court or high court to enforce your rights. You can approach the Court of Appeal to appeal against the high court’s judgment.
Typically, an enforcement action takes 15 to 30 months.
The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department (C&E) initiates criminal action against copyright and trademark infringements in the region.
IP owners must prove they own the relevant intellectual property and provide evidence of its registration and infringement in Hong Kong.
IP infringement impacts your business in several ways:
Taking proactive steps to prevent infringement protects your work and reduces the cost of pursuing legal action.
Preferred forums for initiating civil action against IP infringement include district and high courts.
Usually, courts order one of the following remedies:
You can also resolve IP disputes through arbitration and mediation.
Here’s a break up of penalties for various IP infringements:
Any information that gives your business a competitive edge is valuable and requires protection. The umbrella term ‘trade secret’ covers all such information.
Any confidential information of a business known to a limited number of people and holding commercial value counts as a trade secret.
The recipes for KFC chicken and Krispy Kreme doughnuts are some of the world’s most popular trade secrets.
Other examples of trade secrets include:
The common law of confidence protects trade secrets Under Hong Kong IP laws.
You can impose an obligation on another person to keep the information confidential. The owner of the trade secret has the following remedies for any breach of confidence:
Executing a non-disclosure agreement is a strong preventive measure to protect the misappropriation of your trade secrets.
You can execute an NDA with business partners and employees to prevent them from sharing any confidential information about your company.
A solid plan for managing and protecting your IP assets can go a long way to boost the potential of your business.
Here are some best practices to consider:
IP strategies are unnecessary for small companies with few employees on the roll.
But if you are running a large organization, create a well-drafted intellectual property strategy that focuses on:
Maintaining and monitoring intellectual property rights helps you to align the IP strategy with the business’s overall goals.
In particular, you should aim toward:
Conduct regular IP audits to unlock the true value of your IP assets.
Audits can also help you uncover loopholes in licensing agreements, assignment agreements, tech transfer agreements, etc., to prevent your rights from getting compromised.
Like your investment portfolio, you must manage your intellectual property assets smartly.
There are different aspects of IP portfolio management, such as:
You can also make sure that your IP policies cover all products and services you offer to provide a competitive advantage in the market.
Other than copyright, you need to approach relevant registries of IPD to register your intellectual property right and receive legal protection. Hong Kong IP laws also have a strong enforcement mechanism to address infringement issues.
Protecting your IP rights can help you get an edge over your competitors, skyrocket the value of your business, and open floodgates of investment. And being well-versed in Hong Kong’s IP landscape means you know which authority to approach if you need IP registration or wish to initiate enforcement action for infringement.
Are you having difficulty trusting someone to establish your business in Hong Kong while you are on the other end of the world? Need someone with a wealth of experience setting up and running a business in Hong Kong, including compliance with Hong Kong IP laws?
Get in touch with Air Corporate today.
There is no provision to register a copyright in Hong Kong. But you can get proof of copyright in Hong Kong by applying for an affidavit or declaration under the Copyright Ordinance.
No. Chinese patents only offer protections in PRC. Inventors in Hong Kong must file Hong Kong Standard Patent Application to receive patent protection in Hong Kong.
You can file an application online or in person with the Hong Kong government’s Trade Marks Registry, Intellectual Property Department.
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