Industrial Design Registration in Hong Kong

Industrial design registration is one way to protect your intellectual property rights in Hong Kong. Designs can be registered for a wide range of products, including computers, telephones, CD-players, textiles, jewelry and watches. Registered design owners have the right to prevent others from manufacturing, importing, using, selling or hiring the design product. You need to register your design to protect it in Hong Kong. Applying for registration of a design elsewhere in the world or in mainland China does not automatically give your design protection in Hong Kong, China.

What Designs Can be Registered?
To be registrable a design must be new at the filing date of the application, or the priority date (if claimed). A design is new if:
(1) it has not been previously registered for the same or any other article, or;
(2) it has not been previously published or disclosed in the HKSAR or elsewhere.

Disclosure of a design before filing an application may destroy its novelty. As a result, the registration may be invalid because the design is not new. This means that to obtain a valid registration, the design owner should apply for registration before marketing the designed product in the HKSAR or anywhere else in the world.

Who Can Apply for Registration?
Only the owner of a design is entitled to register a design. An owner may obtain ownership by commissioning the creation of the design, or under an employment contract or by assignment, etc.

Required Information
1. Representations and statement of novelty
Representations and a statement of novelty are essential as they show the design and describe the features claimed to be new so that the scope of protection can be known to the public. It is in the interests of the design owner to file clear representations so that the registration effectively protects the design.

2. Samples for textile designs
In addition to a representation, a sample can be filed to support an application to register a two-dimensional design for a textile article.

Process for Application
1. Filing an application
Upon receipt of your application form, the Intellectual Property Department will issue a receipt notifying you the application number and the filing date of the application. The filing date is the date we receive the following:

(1) a request for registration of the design;
(2) a representation of the design suitable for reproduction;
(3) applicant's name and address, and the fees payable.

2. Examination
After giving the filing date, the Intellectual Property Department will examine the formalities of the application. The formalities are the information required in the application form. If the application is not in order, the Intellectual Property Department will give notice to the applicant to correct the deficiencies within three months. Failure to correct deficiencies may result in the application being deemed withdrawn.

3. Registration and publication
If an application is in order, the Intellectual Property Department will register the design, publish the registration in the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Journal and issue a certificate of registration. Usually a certificate of registration can be issued within three months after an application is filed.

Duration of Registration
The registration of a design lasts for five years beginning from the filing date. It may be extended for additional periods of five years, up to a maximum of 25 years from the filing date.

Contact Us
If you have further queries, don’t hesitate to contact Tannet anytime, anywhere by simply visiting Tannet’s website english.tannet-group.com, or calling Hong Kong hotline at 852-27826888 or China hotline at 86-755-82143512 or 86-755-82143181 or emailing to info@citilinkia.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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