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Intellectual Property Rights and Consumer Protection

Aim

To prevent and detect copyright and trade mark infringement; to collaborate with trade mark and copyright owners, relevant organisations and law enforcement agencies in or outside Hong Kong in order to combat trade mark counterfeiting and copyright piracy; and to enforce consumer protection legislation relating to weights and measures, toys and children’s products safety, consumer goods safety, trade descriptions and trade practices.

Brief Description

The Department is responsible for suppressing offences and investigating complaints related to copyright infringement under the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528) and the Prevention of Copyright Piracy Ordinance (Cap. 544), forgery of trade marks, false trade descriptions and unfair trade practices under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (Cap. 362), falsifying the register of trade marks, falsely representing a trade mark as registered and misusing the title of the Trade Marks Registry under the Trade Marks Ordinance (Cap. 559), short weights and measures under the Weights and Measures Ordinance (Cap. 68), unsafe toys and children’s products under the Toys and Children’s Products Safety Ordinance (Cap. 424) as well as unsafe consumer goods under the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance (Cap. 456). It initiates investigations in these areas and collaborates as necessary with organisations and law enforcement agencies in or outside Hong Kong, and with trade mark and copyright owners. To safeguard the interests of consumers, the Department also conducts spot checks to ensure compliance with the Toys and Children’s Products Safety Ordinance, the Weights and Measures Ordinance, the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance and the Trade Descriptions Ordinance. The enforcement work involves:

Intellectual property rights

  • conducting investigations and taking enforcement actions against persons and syndicates suspected of committing offences relating to infringement of intellectual property rights;
  • executing court orders to detain goods at importation for the purpose of enforcing boundary measures to comply with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights established under the auspices of the World Trade Organization;
  • arranging and supervising the examination and identification of seizures by trade mark and copyright owners or their representatives;
  • conducting inspections on licensed optical disc mastering and replication factories to guard against manufacture of pirated optical discs and stampers;
  • controlling the import and export of optical discs mastering and replication equipment; and
  • applying to the court for the confiscation of financial proceeds obtained from intellectual property rights infringement crimes.

Consumer protection

  • conducting spot checks on the accuracy of weighing and measuring equipment, compliance with the safety requirements for toys and children’s products and consumer goods, compliance with the orders for provision of information on precious stones, metals and regulated electronic products, and compliance with the requirements on trade descriptions and trade practices; and
  • investigating complaints relating to short weights and measures, unsafe toys and children’s products and consumer goods, false trade descriptions and unfair trade practices.
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