Trademark registration in Hong Kong

No, and this is the misunderstanding that costs brands the most here. Hong Kong is a separate jurisdiction with its own register under the Trade Marks Ordinance; a mark registered with CNIPA in mainland China gives you no rights in Hong Kong, and the reverse is equally true. Macau is separate again. If you sell in more than one of them, you file in each, and we line the filings up so the priority dates work together.

No. The company name on the Companies Registry only stops someone from registering an identical company name; it gives no trademark rights. Your brand needs its own IPD registration, and until it has one, anyone can file for it, including your distributor.

Six to twelve months from filing to certificate when nothing is contested: a substantive examination over two to four months, the three-month publication window, then registration with no further fee. Objections or an opposition extend that. Either way, protection runs from the filing date, so the examination months cost you nothing in coverage.

The IPD charges HK$2,000 for the first class and HK$1,000 for each additional class at filing, with no separate registration fee, and the fees are non-refundable, which is why the search comes first. Our fee covers the search, the filing, and the prosecution to certificate, quoted per class; contested matters are quoted as they arise. Schedule a call with your mark and product list and we'll give you the exact figure.

It depends where their filing stands. If it's within the three-month publication window, we oppose. If it's registered, the routes are invalidation proceedings, a revocation application once the mark has sat unused for three continuous years, or, where you genuinely traded here first, a passing-off claim, valuable, expensive, and no substitute for having filed first. Negotiated purchase and coexistence are also real options. We assess which fits before you spend on any of them.

The international system that groups all goods and services into 45 classes. Your registration protects the mark in the classes you file, so the class choice defines the protection. Hong Kong allows multi-class applications, with the official fee counted per class, HK$2,000 for the first and HK$1,000 for each one after.

They have three months from publication, extendable on request. The proceedings run on evidence and submissions before the Registrar, with a hearing if it gets that far, and many oppositions settle on coexistence or amended specifications rather than running to a decision. We prepare the defense and tell you honestly when settling beats fighting.

You declare an intent to use at filing, and nothing periodic after that. The use rule bites differently: a mark unused for three continuous years from registration can be revoked on application, so the protection is only as strong as your evidence of use. We keep dated proof (sales records, listings, packaging, campaigns) with the file, so a revocation claim meets a wall instead of a gap.

Not yet. Hong Kong is not a member of the Madrid System, so you file directly with the IPD, and a Madrid application cannot designate Hong Kong even when it covers mainland China. The government has signaled an intention to join, but it is not in force, so for now a Hong Kong mark is always a separate, direct national filing.

The registration renews every ten years, counted from the filing date. The renewal files within the six months before expiry, with a six-month grace period after it at a higher fee (HK$2,670 per class on the current schedule); miss both and the mark lapses. We calendar yours the day the certificate issues.