Results from the latest Survey on Business Attitudes to Intellectual Property reveal that awareness of intellectual property (IP) rights among business establishments in Hong Kong remains high.
A total of 1,001 business establishments responded to the survey commissioned by the Intellectual Property Department (IPD) and released April 7.
Of the respondents, 92.1% are aware that IP rights include copyrights, trademarks and patents. In general, they consider it necessary to protect IP rights in Hong Kong’s business environment (93.7%) and that IP is a valuable company asset (98.3%).
“It is encouraging to see that most of the businesses are aware that protecting IP rights is beneficial and they consider IP a valuable asset,” said Director of Intellectual Property Stephen Selby.
Almost half the establishments (46%) think the government should play the most important role in reducing IP rights infringement in Hong Kong, notably lower than the 55.9% in 2006. Others believe the most important IP enforcers should be “educational institutions” (19.1%) and “copyright owners” (17.8%).
Nearly 70% of the respondents think the IPD’s promotional activities are effective in raising awareness among Hong Kong businesses of IP rights protection. That figure is significantly higher than the 48.3% in 2006.
Of the respondents, more than 52% correctly identify “criminal liability” as the most serious consequence for a company that infringes on others’ IP — significantly more than the 13.3% in 2006. Others believe the most serious consequence is “civil liability” (17.8%) and “damage to company’s reputation/goodwill” (15.6%).
Nearly half (49.5%) are aware of the new criminal liability that directors/partners might incur if their companies possess pirated software for business use. The survey shows that 67.7% learned about this provision from television and/or radio and 42.4% from print advertisements in newspapers and/or magazines.
The fact that there are licensing programs operated on behalf of copyright owners that authorize copying of local newspaper articles and books for business use is unknown by 72.6% of the business establishments.
On the difference between trademark and company registration, only 35% correctly replied that registering a business or company name is different from registering a trademark. Also, 45.7% of the respondents are not aware that they have to apply for separate registration of trademark, patent or design on the Mainland and in Hong Kong to gain protection in both places.
Regarding the economic benefits of IP right protection, the majority of the business establishments believe it would help enhance the development of local creative industries (84.5%), create business opportunity and wealth (77.6%) and contribute to the overall development of Hong Kong’s economy (72.3%). The findings are consistent with those in previous surveys.
“IPD will continue to disseminate the message on IP protection to the business community through different channels,” Mr. Selby said. “We are planning to put out a series of TV announcements featuring different scenarios in the protection of IP and bringing out the right concepts and co-organize seminars with professional business bodies. The survey results have provided a useful direction for us in planning our work.”
The survey report is available on the Web site of the Intellectual Property Department, [www.ipd.gov.hk].
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