CHANG TSI
Insights
Hong Kong is the Special Administration Region (SAR) of P. R. China. Currently, P.R. China and Hong Kong adopt parallel legal systems, including parallel trademark and patent registration systems. Accordingly, filing patents in Mainland China and Hong Kong respectively is required to achieve necessary legal protections in the two jurisdictions.
The Hong Kong patent includes Standard patent and Short-term patent, which is specified in the Patents Ordinance. In addition, the protection of the Design is regulated by the Registered Designs Ordinance. The protection period of the Standard patent is 20 years, the protection period of the Short-term patent is 8 years and the protection period of the Design is 25 years.
The Standard patent can be applied directly to the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department (HKIPD), or can be extended to Hong Kong based on the designated patent application in China, Europe or the United Kingdom. In the latter case, the applicant has to go through relevant procedures with the HKIPD within 6 months from the publication date of the designated patent application and within 6 months from the issue date of the designated patent application respectively.
The Short-term patent can be directly applied to the HKIPD, and can also be extended to Hong Kong based on the Chinese national phase application from the PCT application. In the latter case, the applicant must file the Short-term patent within 6 months from the issuance date of the national application notification by the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
The Design in Hong Kong can include one or more designs in one application. An applicant can file one application including more than one design in an application, if the designs relate to the same class of articles or the same set of articles according to the Locarno Classification.
Taiwan government aims to accelerate the prosecution process and provide a broader protection for the industry to encourage inventors and brand owners to seek protections through the trademark and patent system. Here are the summaries of the new policies just launched in the past year and the introduction of the Draft of the new Patent law and Trademark Act
The regulators focus on chemical safety labels in their supervision and administration of hazardous chemicals because chemical safety labels provide essential identifications to indicate the hazardous properties of chemicals. Entities engaging in hazardous chemicals industry, therefore, have started to put emphasis on chemical safety labels. This article will briefly introduce chemical safety labels under Chinese regulatory regime, including the importance, the preparation and the punishment thereof, and will also provide suggestions on regulatory compliance when making safety label.
