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Copyright
The short answer: Hong Kong has no copyright registry. Protection arises automatically when a work is created and generally lasts for the author's life plus 50 years. What actually needs managing is not registration but who owns the work and how you prove it — especially for employee works, commissioned design, licences and assignments. We handle ownership, assignments, licensing and infringement complaints.
- No registration: protection arises on creation
- Term: generally 50 years after the author dies
- Owner: the author; for employees usually the employer
- In practice: keep evidence of creation and publication, and document assignments and licences
Copyright FAQ
Copyright is the right given to the author or owner of an original work. It can subsist in literary, musical and artistic works — books, compositions, paintings and so on.
Copyright arises when the work is created. It need not be registered to be protected in Hong Kong, and in fact Hong Kong has no official registry for copyright works.
Broadly, for the life of the author plus 50 years after death. The basic rule varies slightly depending on the type of work.
The author is the first owner. For a work made by an employee in the course of employment, the employer is the first owner unless agreed otherwise.
None. Works first published anywhere in the world can be protected in Hong Kong.
Copies made with the authorisation of the copyright owner in the place of manufacture for sale outside Hong Kong, later imported into Hong Kong without the consent of the Hong Kong owner.
No. Under the Copyright Ordinance that conduct gives rise to neither civil nor criminal liability.
No. Restrictions on parallel-imported computer software were fully removed in 2003; importing or using such software is now unrestricted.