Hong Kong trademark registration is one of the ways to protect your intellectual property (IP) rights in HK. Trade marks are an important business asset. They are signs that help your customers identify your products and services, and to distinguish them from a competitor’s products and services. The recognition of your trade mark by your customers therefore represents a very large part of the goodwill of your business.
Hong Kong being a centre of international trade has highly skilled IP practitioners and other professionals providing a variety of intermediary support services to Hong Kong’s technology and IP related sectors.
Why Registering A Trademark in HK?
Registering your trade mark is not mandatory. However, registered trade marks are assets, which can be owned, while unregistered trade marks are not assets. As well, it is easier to protect your rights over a registered trade mark.
As the owner of a registered trade mark, you will have the exclusive right to use the trade mark in relation to the goods and services for which the mark is registered. If others use your registered trade mark in Hong Kong or a name which is identical or similar to your trade mark in relation to the same or similar goods or services without your consent, you may take infringement proceedings against them.
Unregistered marks are protected by the common law action of passing off. You must prove goodwill or reputation in the unregistered mark and must prove that the other person misrepresented his/her goods or services to be the goods or services under the unregistered mark and that person’s use of the mark will cause you damage. Passing off is usually a more difficult action to bring than an action for infringement of a registered trade mark.
You should protect your trade mark, by registering it. This helps you stop your competitors, and others, from using your trade mark, and by doing so, free-riding on the goodwill and reputation that your trade mark has earned in the marketplace by your efforts.
Duration of Trademarks
In Hong Kong, a registered trade mark is initially registered for 10 years. The registration of the trade mark can be renewed for further periods of 10 years each, with the payment of renewal fees.
The registration of a trade mark can therefore last indefinitely if it continues to be renewed. However, a registered trade mark may be challenged in revocation proceedings if it is not used in Hong Kong for a continuous period of 3 years.
Contact Us
If you have further inquires, please do not hesitate to contact Tannet at anytime, anywhere by simply visiting Tannet’s website english.tannet-group.com, or calling Hong Kong hotline at 852-27826888 or China hotline at 86-755-82143422, or emailing to tannet-solution@hotmail.com. You are also welcome to visit our office situated in 16/F, Taiyangdao Bldg 2020, Dongmen Rd South, Luohu, Shenzhen, China.
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