Hong Kong’s Intellectual Property Department celebrated World Intellectual Property Day on April 21, 2026, with a reception and pronouncements about how the government will be advancing the role of IP in the territory.  

Financial Secretary highlighted the substantial economic value of IP in the region. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) now has close to 820,000 valid invention patents, representing nearly one-sixth of China’s national total, Chan said at the reception. 

Chan said that China fully supports Hong Kong’s development as a regional IP trading centre, as reaffirmed in its National 15th Five-Year Plan. Chan underlined that in the budget this year, the government is advancing the IP agenda on three key fronts: strengthening the tax regime, promoting IP valuation and financing and nurturing talent. 

He highlighted that the government completed the trade consultation on tax deductions for capital expenditures incurred on IP acquisitions. The aim is to amend the Inland Revenue Ordinance this year. 

According to KPMG analysts, for Hong Kong profits tax purposes, expenditures incurred in acquiring IP or rights to use IP are generally non-deductible, as they are considered capital in nature. “A tax deduction may be available if the acquired IP or IP rights fall within one of the specified categories for which special tax deductions are allowed under the Inland Revenue Ordinance (IRO). However, numerous anti-abuse rules exist, which may deny tax deductions in various circumstances. This effectively increases the business costs of engaging in IP-related activities in Hong Kong,” KPMG analysts wrote in a February 2026 Hong Kong SAR Tax Alert. 

“We welcome the government’s initiative to enhance the IP tax deduction regime in Hong Kong, which demonstrates its commitment to responding to feedback from the industry and tax profession,” the firm wrote. “As with other existing tax incentives and concessions in Hong Kong, we believe that any anti-abuse measures or deeming provisions premised on the tax symmetry principle proposed for the new IP tax deduction regime should be carefully formulated and administered to ensure that the deduction regime remains business-friendly and pragmatic.  

At the World IP Day reception, Chan also said that the government has launched the IP Financing Sandbox, which allows stakeholders to capture the full lifecycle of IP financing arrangements. Moreover, he noted that the government supports the Hong Kong Technology and Innovation Support Centre in its efforts launch a Pilot Patent Valuation Support Scheme to help SMEs establish the value of their patent assets, with reference to the national standards, or Guobiao. 

Chan said that on the talent front, the government has allocated HK$52 million (US$6.6 million) for a two-year pilot scheme to establish an IP Academy. The academy will commence operations by the end of this year and will offer practical, on-the-job training aligned with the Qualifications Framework, he said. 

It is against this backdrop that we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of Hong Kong’s IP Experts, those lawyers who understand just what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.  

Hong Kong has long been a hub for global law firms, and those IP firms and practices are well-represented on our list, with Bird & Bird (Ted Chwu, Matthew Laight, Hank Leung and Alison Wong) and Rouse (Theresa Mak, Rachel Tan, Chris Vale and Adelaide Yu) each placing four lawyers on our list, while Baker McKenzie (Isabella Liu, Shih Yann Loo and Loke-Khoon Tan) placed three firms on our list. Global firms Clifford Chance, CMS, DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, Hogan Lovells, Jones Day, Mayer Brown, MinterEllison and Nixon Peabody CWL are also represented on the list. 

But Hong Kong has also been a place where local and regional law firms can thrive, and their inclusion on our list – and the numbers by which they are represented – is proof of that. Deacons (Charmaine Koo, Patsy Lau and Catherine Zheng), East IP (Dan Plane, Joe Simone and Helen Tang) and ELLALAN (Alan Chiu, Rosita Li and Kenny Wong), each placed three on our list. Mayer Brown (Amita Haylock and Gabriela Kennedy), Vivien Chan & Co. (Vivien Chan and Martin Lo) and Wilkinson & Grist (Andrea Fong and Annie Tsoi) each have two lawyers on our list. Sixtenn more local practices are represented, from DeLab Consulting to Gallant, from P.C. Woo & Co. to Oldham Li & Nie, from SFKS CK Kwong to Twiggy MH Liu Law Office. 

Our survey includes only those lawyers working at law firms in Hong Kong. 

Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

All of them have something in common: they are Asia IP’s IP Experts for Hong Kong. – GREGORY GLASS 

Hong Kong’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to thousands of in-house counsel in Hong Kong, China, Asia and around the world, as well as Hong Kong- and China-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers, including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has more than 55 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the legal market in Hong Kong. 

All private practice intellectual property lawyers working at law firms in Hong Kong were eligible for inclusion in the nomination process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion. 

The names of our 50 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.