How to Register a Trademark in Hong Kong

Is your brand name actually yours in Hong Kong?

Unless you have registered it, mostly not. Trademark rights in Hong Kong come from registration, and an unregistered brand is a brand someone else can take.

Registration is inexpensive compared to losing a name you spent years building. Here is the process, the costs, and the mistakes to avoid.

Why Registration Matters in Hong Kong

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 reputation through expensive passing-off litigation. With registration, your certificate is the argument.

Hong Kong registration also matters for expansion. It is separate from mainland China, so protecting one gives you nothing in the other. Brands moving into Greater China typically register in both from the start.

What Can Be Registered

A trademark can be a word, logo, slogan, shape, colour, or a combination, provided it is 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 will not give one trader a monopoly on ordinary descriptions.

We advised a founder whose entire brand was a generic industry phrase. The rebrand hurt for a month; losing the application and the marketing spend behind it would have hurt longer.

Choosing Your Classes

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

Your protection only covers the classes you file in. A clothing brand in class 25 is unprotected in class 35 retail services unless it files there too.

Think two years ahead. Cover what you sell now and what you credibly will sell, because adding classes later means a new application at full cost.

The Application Process, Step by Step

Registration runs through the Trade Marks Registry of 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 conflicts
4. If accepted, the mark is published for opposition
5. If no one objects, the mark registers

A smooth application typically completes in around six months or so. Objections or oppositions extend that considerably.

What It Costs

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

Professional fees for search, drafting, and handling vary by firm and complexity. Straightforward marks stay inexpensive; contested ones cost more.

Registration then lasts ten years and is renewable every ten years after that. As brand insurance, few things this durable cost this little.

Common Reasons Applications Fail

The same problems recur:

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

Most failures are avoidable with a proper search and careful drafting before filing. Paying for an hour of checking beats paying for a rejected application.

Final Thoughts

Registering a trademark in Hong Kong is one of the cheapest permanent assets a business can create: a modest fee, a six-month process, and ten years of exclusive rights, renewable indefinitely.

The expensive path is waiting until someone else uses your name. Search, choose classes with your future in mind, and file before the brand is worth copying.

Frequently Asked Questions