Legislative Texts
Chapter 522
An Ordinance to make new provision in respect of registered design right and related matters in substitution for the United Kingdom Designs (Protection) Ordinance.
[27 June 1997] L.N. 368 of 1997
Section 1
Remarks:
Amendments retroactively made - see 25 of 1998 s. 2; 22 of 1999 s. 3
(1) In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires—
“application for registration” means an application for registration of a design made under section 12 ;
“article” means any article of manufacture and includes any part of an article if that part is made and sold separately;
“artistic work” has the same meaning as in Part II of the Copyright Ordinance (Cap 528); (Amended 92 of 1997 s. 280 & Schs. 2 & 3)
“assignee” includes the personal representative of a deceased assignee, and references to the assignee of any person include references to the assignee of the personal representative or assignee of that person;
“corresponding design”, in relation to an artistic work, means a design which if applied to an article would produce something which would be treated for the purposes of Part II of the Copyright Ordinance (Cap 528) as a copy of that work; (Amended 22 of 1999 s. 3)
“court” means the Court of First Instance; (Amended 25 of 1998 s. 2)
“design” means features of shape, configuration, pattern or ornament applied to an article by any industrial process, being features which in the finished article appeal to and are judged by the eye, but does not include-
Legislative Texts “designer”, in relation to a design, means the person who creates it or, if there are 2 or more such persons, each of those persons;
“employee” means a person who works or (where the employment has ceased) worked under a contract of employment (whether with the Government or with any other person);
“employer”, in relation to an employee, means the person by whom the employee is or was employed;
“exclusive licence” means a licence from the registered owner of a registered design conferring on the licensee, or on him and persons authorized by him, to the exclusion of all other persons (including the registered owner), any right in respect of the design that would otherwise be exercisable exclusively by the registered owner, and “exclusive licensee” shall be construed accordingly;
“filing date”, in relation to an application for registration, means the date determined under section 14 as the filing date of the application;
“owner” has the meaning assigned by section 3 ;
“Paris Convention” means the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property signed at Paris on 20 March 1883, as revised or amended from time to time;
“Paris Convention country” means— “prescribed” means prescribed or provided for by the rules;
“priority date”, in relation to an application for registration, means the date regarded as being the filing date of the application pursuant to section 17 ;
“protected layout-design (topography)” has the meaning assigned to that term by section 2(1)
of the Layout-design (Topography) of Integrated Circuits Ordinance (Cap 445);
“Register” means the Register of Designs kept under this Ordinance;
“registered design” means a design registered under section 25 ;
“registered owner”, in relation to a registered design, means the person whose name is for the
time being entered in the Register as the owner of the design or, if there are 2 or more such persons, each of those persons; “Registrar” means the Registrar of Designs; “Registrar of Designs” means the person holding that office by virtue of the Director of Intellectual Property (Establishment) Ordinance (Cap 412);
Legislative Texts
“Registry” means the Designs Registry administered by the Registrar;
“rules” means rules made by the Registrar under section 79 , 80 , 81 or 82 , as the case may be;
“set of articles” means 2 or more articles of the same general character that are ordinarily on sale together or intended to be used together, to each of which the same design, or the same design with modifications or variations not sufficient to alter the character or substantially to affect the identity thereof, is applied;
“World Trade Organization Agreement” means the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization done at Marrakesh in 1994, as revised or amended from time to time;
“WTO member” means any country, territory or area for the time being specified in the Schedule as being a country, territory or area which has acceded to the World Trade Organization Agreement. (3) The expressions listed in the left-hand column below are defined in, or fall to be construed in accordance with, the provisions of this Ordinance listed in the right-hand column in relation to those expressions.
Expressions Relevant provision Legislative Texts
(5) In the case of a design generated by computer in circumstances such that there is no human designer, the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the design are made shall be deemed to be the designer.
Subject to Part IV , this Ordinance binds the Government.
or if it differs from such a design only in immaterial details or in features which are variants commonly used in the trade.
(3) The Registrar may, in such cases as may be prescribed, direct that for the purpose of deciding whether a design is new an application for registration shall be treated as made on a date earlier or later than that on which it was in fact made.
A design is not registrable in respect of an article if the appearance of the article is not material, that is, if aesthetic considerations are not normally taken into account to a material extent by persons acquiring or using articles of that description, and would not be so taken into account if the design were to be applied to the article.
Legislative Texts (1) Computer programs and protected layout-designs (topographies) are not registrable.
(2) Provision may be made by rules for excluding from registration under this Ordinance designs for such articles of a primarily literary or artistic character as the rules may specify.
if the application for registration of the design is made not later than 6 months after the opening of the exhibition.
(3) In this section, “official international exhibition” means an official, or officially recognized, international exhibition falling within the terms of the Convention on International Exhibitions signed at Paris on 22 November 1928, and any protocols to that Convention, as revised or amended from time to time.
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Section 10 and that previous use was made by or with the consent of the copyright owner.
(3) Provision may be made by rules as to the circumstances in which a design is to be regarded for the purposes of this section as “applied industrially” to articles or any description of articles.
Section 11 (1) Where the registered owner of a design registered in respect of any article makes an application REGISTERED DESIGNS ORDINANCE
Long title
PART I
�PRELIMINARY
�
Short title
Section 2
�Interpretation
�
�Divisional application Section 22(1)
� Formal requirements section 24(4)
� Government use Section 37(2)
� Kit section 31(5)
� Official international exhibition section 9(3)
� Regular national filing section 15(4)
�
Section 3 Ownership of designs
Section 4
�Ordinance binds Government
�
PART II
�REGISTRATION OF DESIGNS
�
Section 5
�New designs are registrable
�
Registrable designs
Section 6
�Designs are not registrable if appearance of article is not material
�
Section 7 Designs contrary to public order (“ordre public”) or morality are not registrable
Section 8
�Computer programs, protected layout-designs (topographies) and designs for
�articles of a primarily literary or artistic character
�
Section 9
�Provisions as to confidential disclosure, etc.
�
�Provisions as to artistic works
�
�Provisions as to registration of same design in respect of other articles, etc.
�