Is your brand name actually yours in Hong Kong?

Unless you've registered it, mostly not. Trademark rights here come from registration, not from being first to use a name. An unregistered brand is one somebody else can register out from under you.

Registration is cheap compared with losing a name you've spent years building. Here's the process, the costs, and the things that go wrong.

Why it matters

A registered trademark gives you the exclusive right to use your mark for the goods and services it covers.

Without registration, stopping a copycat means proving your reputation through passing-off litigation, which is slow and expensive and far from certain. With registration, your certificate is the argument.

It matters for expansion too. Hong Kong is a completely separate system from mainland China, so protecting one gives you nothing at all in the other. Brands moving into Greater China normally register in both from the start.

What you can register

A trademark can be a word, a logo, a slogan, a shape, a colour, or a combination of those, as long as it's distinctive.

Distinctive means capable of identifying your goods or services specifically. Invented words and stylised logos register easily. Descriptive terms like "Fresh Bread Bakery" struggle, because the law won't hand one trader a monopoly on ordinary descriptions of what they sell.

Check this before you print anything

I once advised a founder whose whole brand was a generic industry phrase. The rebrand stung for a month. Losing the application, plus all the marketing spend behind the name, would have stung a great deal longer.

Choosing your classes

Trademarks are registered by class under the Nice Classification, which splits all goods and services into 45 categories.

Your protection only covers the classes you actually file in. A clothing brand registered in class 25 has no protection in class 35 retail services unless it files there too.

Think two years ahead. Cover what you sell now and what you can credibly see yourself selling, because adding classes later means a fresh application at full cost.

The process

Registration goes through the Trade Marks Registry at the Intellectual Property Department.

  1. Search the register first for identical or similar existing marks
  2. File the application with your mark, owner details and classes
  3. The Registry examines it for distinctiveness and for conflicts
  4. If accepted, it's published for a period during which others can oppose
  5. If nobody objects, it registers

A clean application usually takes around six months. Objections from the Registry or oppositions from third parties extend that considerably.

What it costs

Official filing fees are moderate: HKD 2,000 for one class, plus HKD 1,000 for each additional class.

Professional fees for the search, the drafting and handling the Registry correspondence vary by firm and by how complicated the mark is. Straightforward applications stay cheap. Contested ones don't.

Registration then lasts ten years, renewable every ten years indefinitely. As brand insurance goes, very few things this durable cost this little.

Why applications fail

The same handful of problems, over and over:

  • The mark is descriptive or generic for the goods it covers
  • An identical or similar mark already exists in that class
  • The specification of goods is drafted too broadly, or too vaguely
  • Deadlines for responding to Registry objections get missed

Nearly all of these are avoidable with a proper search and careful drafting before filing. Paying for an hour of checking beats paying for a refused application and starting again.

The short version

A Hong Kong trademark is one of the cheapest permanent assets a business can create. A modest fee, about six months, and ten years of exclusive rights that renew indefinitely.

The expensive path is waiting until somebody else starts using your name. Search properly, choose your classes with the next two years in mind, and file while the brand is still too small to be worth copying.

Common questions

What does it cost to register a trademark in Hong Kong?

Official fees are HKD 2,000 for one class and HKD 1,000 per additional class, plus professional fees if a firm handles it. Registration lasts ten years.

How long does it take?

A smooth application usually completes in around six months. Registry objections or third-party oppositions can push it well beyond that.

Does a Hong Kong trademark protect me in mainland China?

No. They're separate systems. If you operate in both, you register in both.

What's a trademark class?

A category under the Nice Classification covering particular goods or services. Your protection only applies in the classes you register, so choose with your plans in mind.

Can I register a descriptive name?

Usually not. Marks have to be distinctive, and ordinary descriptions of the goods get refused. Invented or stylised names register far more easily.

What if someone opposes my application?

It goes into opposition proceedings where both sides argue their case. Plenty of oppositions settle, but this is the stage where professional handling really matters.

J

Written by Jan Chow

Jan runs Hong Kong Jan, a small corporate services practice in Central. She has spent her whole career setting up companies across Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. These days she looks after founders herself, so you are never talking to a call centre. More about Jan.