Patents

A patent gives its owner the legal right to stop others from making, using, selling or importing the patented invention, and so protects it.

Hong Kong has two kinds of patent:

• standard patent
• short-term patent

A standard patent is renewed annually after the end of the third year, for up to 20 years. A short-term patent is renewed 4 years from its filing date, for up to 8 years.

You file with the Patents Registry of the Intellectual Property Department. A patent applied for elsewhere — including elsewhere in China — is not automatically protected in Hong Kong. The Registrar conducts only a formal examination and does not examine novelty or inventiveness.

A Hong Kong standard patent is granted on the basis of a patent granted by one of three offices (the "designated patent offices"):

• the China National Intellectual Property Administration;
• the European Patent Office (for patents designating the United Kingdom); and
• the United Kingdom Patent Office

The Hong Kong process has two stages, each requiring a request:

1. a request to record the designated patent application, meaning an application published by one of those offices (stage 1); and
2. a request for registration and grant in Hong Kong of the patent already granted by that office (stage 2).

A Hong Kong short-term patent is granted on the basis of a search report from an international searching authority or a designated patent office. The applicant files a request for grant together with the required documents and information.

The request to record must be filed within 6 months of the publication of the designated patent application by the designated patent office.

Once the request to record states the applicant's identity, refers to the designated application and sets out its number, publication number and publication date, the Registry assigns a filing date to the request.

The Registry examines the request after assigning the filing date. Deficiencies must be corrected within 2 months of the notice. If there are none, or they are corrected, the request is published and advertised in the Hong Kong IP Journal.

If the application has not entered stage 2 (registration and grant) within 5 years of publishing the request to record, the applicant must maintain it and pay maintenance fees; otherwise the Registry treats the application as withdrawn.

No later than 6 months after publication of the request to record in Hong Kong, or after the designated patent is granted by the designated office, whichever applies.

There is no deadline for filing a short-term patent in Hong Kong. However, to claim priority from an earlier application in a Paris Convention country or WTO member, the Hong Kong application must be filed within 12 months of that earlier filing.

The Registry examines the application after assigning the filing date and requires deficiencies to be corrected within 2 months. If there are none, or they are corrected, the patent is granted, its details are published and advertised in the Hong Kong IP Journal.