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A survey commissioned by the Intellectual Property Department reveals that the people of Hong Kong are increasingly aware of the importance of protecting intellectual property rights.
Since the survey started in 1999, public awareness of intellectual property rights has markedly improved. This is reflected by the fact that the awareness level of the relevant legislation on intellectual property in Hong Kong has increased from 55.2% in 1999 to 71.2% in 2004.
According to the "Sixth Annual Survey on Public Awareness of Protection of Intellectual Property Rights - 2004", 95.7% of respondents believed it was necessary to protect intellectual property rights in Hong Kong. About three-quarters (76%) of them considered that the infringement of intellectual property rights in Hong Kong was serious, a slight increase as compared to 74.5% of 2003.
More than 23% of respondents considered that the general public should play a dominant role in improving the situation of intellectual property rights infringement in Hong Kong, which is more than the figure in 2003 (18.7%). Respondents also believed that "raising awareness of intellectual property rights protection and strengthening education" (31.5%) was the most effective measure to improve the situation of intellectual property rights infringement in Hong Kong.
For the survey in 2004, questions about the file-sharing behaviour on the Internet have been added. More than 70% of respondents knew that file-sharing was an infringement of intellectual property rights. Less than 10% of them were often or sometimes involved in file-sharing activities on the Internet. The survey revealed that younger males with a higher education level tended to visit newsgroups or unauthorised websites to download files for file-sharing purpose.
"The popularity of the Internet has raised new issues concerning intellectual property rights protection," Director of Intellectual Property Mr Stephen Selby said at a press conference announcing findings of the survey today (January 18).
"Although the results of the survey in 2004 reveals that intellectual property rights infringement on the Internet is not as serious as we have expected, we believe that more promotional effort is still required to educate the public, -- especially young people -- about the importance of respecting intellectual property rights in the cyber world," Mr Selby said.
Most of the findings are consistent with those in the previous years. However, fewer people (17.5% of total respondents) claimed that they would often or sometimes buy pirated or counterfeit products, whereas 27.3% claimed that they would seldom buy and more than half (55.2%) claimed that they had never bought such products. Of those who had bought pirated or counterfeit goods before, 63% claimed that they bought pirated music CD, movie DVD or VCD the most, followed by computer software (15.2%) and game (8.1%).
"The survey provides us new information and insights on how to tackle intellectual property rights infringements in Hong Kong. We shall keep up our efforts in promoting public awareness and respect for intellectual property rights. We have budgeted about $7 million for public education efforts in the coming financial year. For instance, we will further promote the No Fakes Pledge in the coming financial year," Mr Selby said.
The survey reports are available on the website of the Intellectual Property Department at www.ipd.gov.hk.
Ends/Tuesday, January 18, 2005
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