Registered Design (Hong Kong, China & other countries/districts)

-  Registered Design enquiries and search

-  Application for Registered Design

-  Transfer of Registered Design / grant of license of Registered Design

-  Renewal of Registered Design / Management of annuities

For enquiries relating to design registration in other countries, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Information and Requirements for HK Registered Design

Registered Design
Registered designs can protect only the appearance of the products, examples of those products are electronic products, textiles, jewelry, watches and the like. Registration of the design will not protect the means by which the products relating to the design work. Protection for the means whereby a product works may be available under patent law. Computer software is protected under copyright law.

Owners of their registered design have a right to prevent others from manufacturing, importing, using, selling or hiring their products with registered design.

The protection of a registered design is for a maximum period of 25 years subject to renewal for every 5 years.

Application for registration of a design Novelty
To be registrable, the design of the product must at the time of the filing of the application by the applicant be new, that is to say, with novelty.

A design is new (with novelty) if :-
1.     it has not been previously registered for the same or any other article; or
2.     it has not been previously published or disclosed in HK or elsewhere

Disclosure of a design before filing an application may undermine its novelty and as a result, the registration may be subject to challenge for lack of novelty by others.

Therefore, to obtain a valid registration, the better idea is: the owner of the product should get his design registered before the products are put on market in HK or elsewhere in the world.

Protection for a registered design in Hong Kong
To be protected in Hong Kong, registration of a design in Hong Kong is needed. If the applicant intends to grant a license to a third party to manufacture, import, use, sell or hire his design product in Hong Kong, it is necessary for the applicant to register the design of that product in Hong Kong.

Successful registration of a design product elsewhere in the world or in China does not automatically give a right of protection to that design product in Hong Kong.

However, even if the applicant does not register its design in Hong Kong, he could still have protection under copyright law for products produced from his original design drawings or a rough sketch. Protection under copyright law is for 15 years from the date the design products are put on market. But protection under copyright law is limited in the sense that legal action for infringement of copyright may not be successful if the alleged infringer produces a design similar to that of the applicant.

But if a design is registered, a similar design, even independently created, may sufficiently be constituted as an act of infringement of registered design. The design certificate is one of the strong and powerful evidences in support of the applicants allegation. Henceforth, it is advisable to have the design registered so as to strengthen the protection of the rights of applicant.