Awareness of IP rules remains high: survey

Over 87% of Hong Kongers are aware that copyright, trademarks, and patents are protected under law.

The general public maintains a high level of awareness and respect for intellectual property (IP) rights protection, according to the latest survey by the Intellectual Property Department (IPD).

According to the survey, an overwhelming majority (92.9%) considered it necessary to protect IP rights in Hong Kong. Over 87% of the majority were aware that copyright, trademarks, and patents are protected under law.

Respondents believe that in the long run, IP rights protection can help attract foreign investments (79.3%) and the development of local creative industries (77.7%).

The survey also found that 92.8% of respondents said they had "seldom" or "never" bought pirated or counterfeit goods, whilst 86.2% agreed that it was "morally wrong" to buy such materials, knowing that it represented an infringement of IP rights.

Moreover, 57.2% indicated that they “definitely will” or “possibly will” pay authorised websites for listening to songs, watching movies online, or downloading, with the top two reasons cited for doing so were to “respect IP rights” (35.9%) and to “give support to creative industries” (32.3%).

IPD director of intellectual property David Wong noted that the IPD has been striving to raise 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,” Wong said.