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Hong Kong, China Sign Patent Agreement
20 March 2014
As part of the efforts to implement the “original grant” patent (OGP) system in Hong Kong, the Intellectual Property Department of Hong Kong (IPD) and the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) have signed the Cooperation Arrangement in the Area of Patent in Hong Kong.
Under the arrangement, the current re-registration system for the granting of standard patents will be retained and SIPO will provide technical assistance and support to the IPD for substantive examination of patent applications and the training of staff.
SIPO has more experience in dealing with patents than IPD because in recent years, there are only about 12,000 standard patent applications filed in Hong Kong annually while last year alone, the number of invention patent application filed in China exceeded 650,000, Johnson Li, attorney at law at China Patent Agent (HK) in Beijing tells Asia IP.
“SIPO is now setting up new divisional examination centres as a pre-plan to deal with the fast increase of patent applications in the coming years and such pre-plan will expend the examination capacity of SIPO,” Li says.
“The signing of the arrangement marks a significant milestone in our efforts in implementing the OGP system in Hong Kong. It bears strategic significance in facilitating the development of Hong Kong into a regional innovation and technology hub, as well as a premier IP trading hub,” said Gregory So, secretary for commerce and economic development in Hong Kong.
“After years of hard work, Hong Kong has acquired outstanding achievement and goodwill in the area of intellectual property. Looking ahead, we are prepared to continue joining hands with the relevant departments of Hong Kong to further promote the implementation of all the clauses under the arrangement, so as to bring greater benefits to the economic development and social prosperity of both the mainland and Hong Kong,” said Tian Lipu, former commissioner of SIPO.
The IPD is intensively engaging in other necessary tasks for setting up the requisite infrastructure with a view to implementing the new patent system in 2016-17, subject to the progress of legislative and other preparatory work.
