Results of Survey on Professional and Business Services relating to Intellectual Property Trading/Commercialisation released
The Intellectual Property Department (IPD) announced today (December 31) the results of the Survey on Professional and Business Services relating to Intellectual Property Trading/Commercialisation for 2024, which showed that local manpower with high academic or professional qualifications forms a dynamic and growing talent pool in support of the provision of a variety of professional and business services relating to intellectual property (IP) trading and commercialisation (collectively referred to as IP services). IP services concern the identification, protection, management and commercialisation of IP rights, including trade marks, patents, registered designs, copyright and other rights.
The Director of Intellectual Property, Mr David Wong, said, "With the support of the Central Government, Hong Kong has been fully committed to developing into a regional IP trading centre. Hong Kong's pool of experienced IP service professionals is a key to safeguarding the legitimate interests of parties to IP transactions and the successful promotion of IP commercialisation. The Survey indicated that at least one-third of the establishments providing IP services collaborated with counterparts outside Hong Kong (notably on the Chinese Mainland and overseas) in their daily business. Our IP services providers are team players in both the local and global IP communities, playing the dual roles of 'super connector' and 'super value-adder' by leveraging Hong Kong's distinctive advantage of enjoying the strong support of the motherland and staying closely connected to the world."
The Survey was commissioned by the IPD to collect information on the local landscape of the provision of IP services. During the period from May to October this year, the survey successfully enumerated 751 establishments, of which 266 provided IP services during the year of 2024. It was estimated that as at the end 2024, the number of people in Hong Kong's workforce who engaged in IP services was about 4 148, up about 10 per cent from the manpower survey conducted by the IPD in 2017. Almost 80 per cent of the IP practitioners had a bachelor's degree or higher qualification, and about 70 per cent thereof possessed relevant academic and/or professional qualifications.
In 2024, the establishments most frequently provided "IP registration services" (84.1 per cent) and "IP consultation and/or advisory services" (79.5 per cent), which accounted for the highest percentage of their income in IP services. Amongst various IP rights, "trade marks" (92.4 per cent) and "patents" (48 per cent) were most often involved in the IP services rendered and were the categories that generated the largest business receipts.
The considerable business opportunities brought about by the high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-MacaoGreater Bay Area (GBA) also foster co-operation in IP services in the region. In 2024, about a quarter (25.7 per cent) of the establishments providing IP services in Hong Kong also provided IP services in or concerning the GBA (other than Hong Kong itself), also mostly in respect of "IP registration services" (85.4 per cent) and "IP consultation and/or advisory services" (66.7 per cent). Likewise, "trade marks" (96.1 per cent) and "patents" (50.3 per cent) were the two major types of IP rights involved in these IP services. Furthermore, nearly 30 per cent of the establishments providing IP services in Hong Kong indicated that they would consider starting to provide IP services concerning other parts of the GBA or expand their IP services business to other parts of the GBA in the next two years, indicating their active participation in driving the economic growth of GBA.
The Survey further collected the views of the establishments providing IP services on the major challenges they faced in enhancing IP services in Hong Kong, and they generally see the need for nurturing more talent with sufficient IP knowledge and experience.
Mr Wong said that the IPD will continue pressing ahead with supporting initiatives on various fronts to build a robust ecosystem to enhance Hong Kong's position as a regional IP trading centre.
Members of the public are welcome to browse the summary of survey results uploaded to the website of the IPD.
The Intellectual Property Department (IPD), Photo source: gov.hk
