HK 'poised to be intellectual property trade hub'

Hong Kong is poised to be the intellectual property trading hub in Asia due to rising demand on the Chinese mainland, officials from the special administrative region said at the recent Business of IP Asia Forum.

Addressing an audience of more than 1,300 at the forum, Gregory So, secretary for Commerce and Economic Development at the Hong Kong SAR government, said the geographic balance of IP has changed significantly over the past two decades.

From 1995 to 2009, the share of global IP patent applications from the United States, Europe and Japan together dropped from 77 percent to 59 percent, while China's share alone increased from 1.8 percent to 17 percent.