LC Paper No. LS 156/98-99

Object of the Bill

To adapt certain Ordinances and their subsidiary legislation to bring them into conformity with the Basic Law and with the status of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China.

LegCo Brief Reference

2. TIBCR 43/18/3 issued by the Trade and Industry Bureau in April 1999.

Date of First Reading

3. 5 May 1999.

Comments

4. A list of six Ordinances affected by the proposed amendments in the Bill and a summary of the amendments are at Annex A and B respectively. The Ordinances set out at Annex A relate mainly to intellectual property and their subsidiary legislation. The proposed amendments are essentially technical changes to individual Ordinances.

5. Changes that are specific to these six Ordinances are stated in paragraph 5 of the LegCo brief. It is noted that the deletion of the Royal Arms etc on trade marks in the Trade Marks Ordinance (Cap. 43) conforms with the status of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region. In fact, the existing Trade Marks Ordinance will soon be repealed once the Trade Marks Bill which has just been introduced into this Council on 5 May 1999 is enacted. As for the other five Ordinances, they are relatively newly enacted. The Patents Ordinance (Cap. 514), the Registered Designs Ordinance (Cap. 522) and the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528) were enacted just before 1 July 1997 i.e. on 27 June 1997. Most of the terms have taken into account of adaptation except terms such as "the Governor", the Chinese term of the Legislative Council (please see Annex B). Section 185(3) of the Copyright Ordinance is amended to cover bills published in the Gazette after 30 June 1997. These amendments do not involve any change in policy.

6. If enacted, the Bill will take retrospective effect from 1 July 1997 to ensure that there is consistency in the interpretation of all laws on and after 1 July 1997.

Public Consultation

7. There has not been any public consultation on the Bill.

Consultation with the LegCo Panel

8. No consultation with any LegCo Panel on the details of the Bill has been carried out.

Conclusion

9. Except for one omission in the amendment in relation to the Chinese term of "Legislative Council" in section 54(2) of the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), no particular legal difficulties are discerned in this Bill. The Administration has agreed to propose a Committee Stage amendment on this term. A Bills Committee may not be necessary. Members are recommended to support this Bill and Second Reading debate may be resumed.


Encl.


Prepared by
Ho Ying-chu, Anita
Assistant Legal Adviser
Legislative Council Secretariat
5 May 1999

Annex A

Item No.	Ordinances and subsidiary legislation
1.	Trade Marks Ordinance (Cap. 43) and its subsidiary legislation
2.	Director of Intellectual Property (Establishment) Ordinance (Cap. 412)
3.	Layout-Design (Topography) of Integrated Circuits Ordinance (Cap. 445)
4.	Patents Ordinance (Cap. 514)
5.	Registered Designs Ordinance (Cap. 522)
6.	Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528)

Annex B

Note:

1 References to "Crown" in sections 131(7), 132(i) and 133(11), (12)(i) and (14) of the Copyright Ordinance are replaced by "Government". These references relate to forfeiture of properties to the HKSAR Government.