IP Protection Awareness Remains High

Hong Kong has maintained a high level of awareness of intellectual property (IP) rights protection and respect for such rights, the Intellectual Property Department said today.

The department announced the results of the Survey on Public Awareness of Intellectual Property Right Protection and noted that a total of 1,000 people responded to the survey.

An overwhelming 92.9% of respondents considered it necessary to protect IP rights in Hong Kong, while over 87% were aware that copyright, trademarks and patents are protected under the laws of Hong Kong.

The department pointed out that most of the respondents believed that IP rights protection could help attract foreign investments and the development of local creative industries in the long run.

Meanwhile, 92.8% of the respondents said they had seldom or never bought pirated or counterfeit goods, and 86.2% agreed that it is morally wrong to buy pirated or counterfeit goods knowing that it is an infringement of IP rights.

Additionally, 83.9% of the respondents who purchased products with brands or logos online said they would pay attention to whether the products were genuine, which reflected a significant increase from the results in 2018.

On the use of copyright content, 57.2% of the respondents indicated that they would either definitely or possibly pay authorised websites for listening to songs, watching movies online or downloading songs, movies, computer software, etc, representing a continued upward trend since 2008.

About 80% of the respondents shared the view that it is morally wrong to listen to music or watch movies and TV shows online knowing that they were pirated versions.

Director of Intellectual Property David Wong emphasised that the department has all along been striving to raise the public awareness of IP rights at all levels through various educational and promotional programmes.

"We will keep up our efforts in promoting IP rights protection to underpin the development of Hong Kong as a knowledge-based economy," he added.