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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARK


many patents. We don’t see a lot of patents in the ICT areas, except on semi-conductors where there will be core patents. We have 70 percent Hong Kong companies and about 30 percent from overseas.


What are the challenges to attracting companies here, given the worries that people have about IP in China?


We take full advantage of the IP situation in China. I think a lot of people are still very concerned about the protection of IP here. It’s not really about the law itself, but the enforcement of law ... and the culture of people in China. People in China tend to think that whatever they create belongs to them personally, rather than belonging to the company they are employed by, which is entirely different from a western world view, and from what you will find in Hong Kong. Tis is the norm here and people respect that. It is very hard to enforce culture in law.


What links do you have with academia and universities in Hong Kong?


We have very strong links. We work closely with the six Hong Kong universities that have


“IN TERMS OF PATENTS, WE HAVE SEEN MORE IN GREEN TECH, BIOTECH AND NANO-TECHNOLOGY. I THINK THAT’S BECAUSE ON IT SOFTWARE YOU MAY HAVE COPYRIGHT, BUT NOT SO MANY PATENTS.”


technical degrees. We work with them in four or five areas. One is supply of resources for the companies—we help with company recruitments. Every year we have a big recruitment day prior to graduation for the companies. Te next area is entrepreneurship. We work with them, we promote entrepreneurship and promote our incubation programme. We let them know that if


they want to start a company, we can help them with that. Te third area is technology licensing. We have set up a portal, a search engine at our science and tech parks website, that links to all six universities. You type keywords, and all the university patents will come up. Ten you can drill down into their own websites if something interesting comes up, and you can contact their tech transfer office.


Do you provide any other support in terms of IP?


At STPC we go out and tender for legal firms. Tey then come in and offer a rate, normally at a discount, for tenants in the park. We have a panel to select the best 15 or 16 of them, based on offers, price and mix of expertise of this group. We will post this on our Intranet, to give our companies a shortlist of people to work with who have already been screened by our panel. We also facilitate so-called ‘free chat’, though the law firms would not like to use that phrase. So the companies can talk to a firm for free, and if they want further services then they can sign up. n


World Intellectual Property Review January/February 2012


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