Copyright registration

The October 16, 2005 edition of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that during a hearing in an intellectual property infringement case, District Court judge Chua Fi-lan complained of the lack of a centralized copyright registration system in Hong Kong. The article quoted her as saying that “that there should be a register of every film and every piece of music made and who is the owner” of the copyright.

The article said that proving a copyright infringement case in Hong Kong requires the person found with the infringing items to know that the items infringes copyright or has made appropriate effort to satisfy themselves that the items were authentic. Judge Chua noted that without a registration system, it is “well established that it is very, very difficult to find out who the owner is” or who is licensed to duplicate a copyrighted work.

From a copyright owner’s perspective, providing evidence of ownership or licensed rights to copyrighted materials is a challenge. Without this evidence, it is difficult to prove that a defendant does not have authorization to copy the work. Since Hong Kong does not have a copyright registration system, a copyright owner must look elsewhere to provide evidence of ownership.

Copyright protection begins when an original work is created and protection is not limited to literary work, musical or video works. It is an automatic right that protects original works such as computer software, artistic works, drawings, designs and other works as well. While Hong Kong does not have a registration system, other jurisdictions, such as China and the United States, have such registration systems. Copyright owners should consider registering their original works in those jurisdictions to evidence ownership and when the work was created.

© 2005 -- Prime IPR Global Advisors

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The information in this article should not be relied upon by anyone as legal or business advice concerning specific intellectual property matters. Neither Prime IPR Global Advisors nor anyone related, associated or affiliated with it shall be responsible for any damage, loss, claims or any other liabilities arising from reliance, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, on the contents of this article. Readers are encouraged to consult with a qualified lawyer or intellectual property advisor for specific advice.