Application for a standard patent in Hong Kong must be made based on the patent registration approved by a designated foreign patent office or the State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department has established both short-term patent and appearance design patent systems, to protect the appearance design patents of those inventions and various products only with short-term commercial value.

Types of Application

• Standard Patent
  No application may be made for a standard patent directly in Hong Kong, and such application must be made in two stages:
  • Stage 1: Submission of a Stage 1 application to the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department within 6 months upon the receipt of a formal examination notice after the submission of an application to the State Intellectual Property Office of the PRC, European Patent Office or the United Kingdom Patent Office.
  • Stage 2: Submission of a Stage 2 application to the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department within 6 months upon the receipt of the authorisation notice from China, Europe or the United Kingdom.
• Short-term Patent
  A short-term patent may be applied directly in Hong Kong on the condition that a search report issued by one of the following authorities must be submitted together with the application:
  • State Intellectual Property Office of the PRC
  • European Patent Office
  • The United Kingdom Patent Office
  • Any international searching authority (such as: the United States, Japan, Korea and Spain) appointed in the "Patent Cooperation Treaty"
• Registration of Design
  • Once the Registration of design is granted, the owner has the right to prohibit the others from making, inputting, using, selling or renting his/her registered product. Registration of an appearance design protects the shapes, decoration and visual aesthetic feeling of a new design, but not including its functions and the method of usage.
  • Registration may be applied for the appearance designs of various kinds of products, such as computers, telephones, textiles, jewellery, watches, etc.

Required Documents and Information and Validity Period

Application for Government Grant

Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission promotes a “Hong Kong Patent Application Grant”, the Grant is a funding scheme to assist local companies and individuals to apply for patents of their own inventions and utility models. For an approved application, the applicant will be granted an amount of up to HK$250,000.

If you want to apply for this scheme, please contact us immediately. We will assist you in the preparation for the documents and materials for the application and provide you with free consultation services so as to help you successfully apply for the grant from the Hong Kong Government.

The laws and regulations governing a China patent require novelty, creativity and practicality for the inventions and utility models applying for patents. The appearance designs shall not be the same as or similar to those that have publicly published on publications in China or overseas or publicly used in China before the application date.

Foreigners, foreign corporations or other foreign organisations without habitual residence or place of business applying for patent in China must appoint an agent to carry out the process.

Types of Application

• Invention Patent: products, methods or new technical plans proposed for its improvement
• Utility Model Patent: the shape or the structure of the product or the proposed applicable new technical plans developed from the combination of both
• Design Patent: the shape, pattern, color of the product, or the new design which is applicable and may arouse aesthetic sensibilities developed form the combination of them.

Priority

A patent applicant may enjoy the right of priority, in accordance with any agreement entered into between an oversea country and China or an international treaty under which both of them are parties, for a period of twelve months (six months for Registration of Patent for Appearance Design) immediately from the date on which the initial patent application for the same invention or a utility model was made and such patent application was also made in China.

Required Documents and Information and Term of Validity Period

Application for Government Grant

The Chinese government has set up a special fund to support Chinese applicants to apply for patents in foreign countries, and an applicant who successfully applies for a foreign patent may receive a grant of an amount up to RMB100,000.00.

If you want to apply for this grant, please contact us immediately. We will assist you in the preparation for the documents and materials for the application and provide you with free advisory services so as to help you to successfully apply for the grant from the government.

The patents are granted by the national patent office of respective country. An applicant who wants to be granted multinational patents may make application for a regional patent under the "Paris Convention" or with any other regional patent organisations (such as the European Patent Office, the Eurasian Patent Organisation, African Intellectual Property Organisation, etc.). An applicant may also apply for an international patent under the "Patent Cooperation Treaty" (PCT) administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. In addition, in order to assist an applicant making an exact application according to his market expansion plan, PFR also provides service for patent registration in many overseas countries and regions.

Types of Application

Different countries and regions have different categorisation for patents. For example:

• China：Invention Patent, Utility Model Patent and Design Patent
• Hong Kong：Standard Patent, Short-term Patent, Registration of Design
• The United States：Utility Patent and Design Patent
• Japan：Invention Patent, Utility Model Patent and Design Patent
• Europe： European Patent and Design Patent

Required Information and Documents of PCT

• Application form
• Name of the invention
• Name and address of the applicant
• Name and address of the inventor or designer
• Type of patent
• The application date and the application number of the international stage and the type of patent (if applicable)
• Power of Attorney
• Patent documents ^*

Application Procedures of PCT

• Determination of Application Types
• Submission of Application (International stage)
• International Search and Examination
• Submission of International Application (National stage)
• Acceptance of Patent
• Issuance of Certificate

Maximum Validity Period

It varies with each country and region. Generally, the duration is 20 years for Invention Patent and 10 years for Utility Model Patent.

^*Patent documents shall include:

• Claim: describe the protection scope of the patented technology
• Abstract: provide the outline of the key technical aspect of the patent
• Specification: provide written details and features of the patented technology
• Drawings: illustrate structures or details of the patent

Applications documents from the International application^* include:

Applications documents from the International application^* include:

• Claim: it is the most important document among the patent documents and it describes the protection scope of the patented technology
• Abstract: it provides the outline of the key technical aspect of the patent
• Specification: it provides written details and features of the patented technology
• Drawings: it illustrates structures and details of the patent by drawings