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LCQ2: Personalised vehicle registration marks
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    Following is a question by the Hon Jeffrey Lam and a reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (October 18):

Question:

     It was reported that when the first batch of personalised vehicle registration marks (PVRMs) was auctioned in mid-September, a vehicle registration mark dealer spent a million dollars to acquire more than 20 PVRMs and offered them for public sale on the Internet.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) given that some of the PVRMs in the first batch are abbreviations of listed companies or international brand names, but they have been acquired in the auction not by the companies or holders of the brand names concerned, whether the authorities have received any enquiries or complaints on such acquisitions from the companies concerned or other international companies that the right of their intellectual property or trade marks have been infringed; if they have, of the follow-up actions to be taken by the authorities;

(b) whether any assessment has been made to determine if auctions of PVRMs would be monopolised by vehicle registration mark dealers, resulting in "price-boosting"; and

(c) whether it has reviewed the auction of the first batch of PVRMs to see if there is room for improvement; if it has, of the outcome?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) In drafting the legislation on personalised vehicle registration marks (PVRMs), the Government has carefully considered the legal issues relating to intellectual property rights and has consulted the Intellectual Property Department and the Department of Justice.  Legal advice is that since PVRMs do not include symbols, no question of copyright should arise.  There is generally no copyright in single words and short phrases.  As regards trademark, since trademark infringement is the unauthorised use of a trademark in the course of trade or business in relation to goods and services, and PVRMs are not used as trademarks for goods and services, legal advice is that the use of a PVRM is unlikely to constitute an infringement of a trademark.

     Besides, each PVRM holder will receive a Certificate of Allocation of Personalised Registration Mark.  The notes for PVRM holders printed on the back of the Certificate remind them of their responsibility for ensuring that the use of PVRMs will not infringe any legal requirements or legal rights, in particular intellectual property rights.  The same notes are also found in the Guidance Notes - Auction of Personalised Vehicle Registration Marks, which are distributed to people attending such auctions.

     Some of the PVRM combinations put up for auction are identical to company names or brand names.  The Government has received submissions from some of the companies concerned expressing reservations about or raising objections to the use of such combinations for PVRMs.  As I have explained earlier, our legal advice is that the use of a PVRM is unlikely to constitute an infringement of a trademark or copyright.  As such, there is no ground for us to reject these PVRM applications.  We have written to the companies concerned to explain the matter.

(b) Proposed PVRMs are offered for sale by auction by the Transport Department under Regulation 12I of the Road Traffic (Registration and Licensing of Vehicles) Regulations.  Auctioning PVRMs based on the principle of the items going to the highest bids is consistent with the existing practice of auctioning ordinary and special vehicle registration marks.  Any interested persons can bid for their preferred PVRMs in an open and fair auction.  

(c) The first auction of PVRMs was conducted smoothly with a total of 210 PVRMs put up for sale.  The total proceeds exceeded $11 million.  The Government is satisfied with the smooth completion of the first auction.  The second auction will be conducted in the same way as the first one.

     The Government has undertaken to review the operation of the PVRM Scheme one year after its implementation.  The review report will be submitted to the Legislative Council in the first quarter of 2008.

Ends/Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:08

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