### Registered Designs Ordinance 《註冊外觀設計條例》

32. Nature of registered design
(1) A registered design is personal property and any registered design, and any right in or under it, may be transferred, created or granted in accordance with subsections (2) to (7).
(2) Subject to section 33, any registered design, and any right in or under it, may be assigned or mortgaged.
(3) A registered design shall vest by operation of law in the same way as any other personal property and may be vested by an assent of personal representatives.
(4) Subject to section 33, a licence may be granted under any registered design for the use of the design and—
(a) to the extent that the licence so provides, a sub-licence may be granted under any such licence and any such licence or sub-licence may be assigned or mortgaged; and
(b) any such licence or sub-licence shall vest by operation of law in the same way as any other personal property and may be vested by an assent of personal representatives.
(5) Subsections (2) to (4) shall have effect subject to this Ordinance.
(6) Any of the following transactions, that is to say—
(a) any assignment or mortgage of a registered design or any right in or under it; or
(b) any assent relating to a registered design or any right in or under it,
shall be void unless it is in writing and is signed by or on behalf of the assignor, mortgagor or party granting such assent as the case may be (or, in the case of an assent or other transaction by a personal representative, by or on behalf of the personal representative) or, in the case of a body corporate, is so signed or is under the seal of that body.
(7) An assignment of a registered design or a share in it, and an exclusive licence granted under any registered design, may confer on the assignee or licensee the right of the assignor or licensor to bring proceedings by virtue of section 48 or to bring proceedings under section 40 for a previous act.

### Registered Designs Ordinance 《註冊外觀設計條例》

33. Co-ownership of registered designs
(1) Subject to any agreement to the contrary, where there is more than one registered owner of a registered design, each of them shall be entitled to an equal undivided share in the design.
(2) Subject to this section and to any agreement to the contrary, where there is more than one registered owner of a registered design, each of them shall be entitled, by himself or his agent, to do in respect of the design concerned, for his own benefit and without the consent of or the need to account to any other registered owner, any act which would apart from this subsection and section 37 constitute an infringement of the design concerned; and any such act shall be deemed not to constitute an infringement of the design concerned.
(3) Subject to section 41 and to any agreement to the contrary, where there is more than one registered owner of a registered design, no registered owner shall, without the consent of each of the others, grant a licence under the design or assign or mortgage a share in it.
(4) Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) shall affect the mutual rights or obligations of trustees or of the personal representatives of a deceased person, or their rights or obligations as such.

### Registered Designs Ordinance 《註冊外觀設計條例》

34. Transactions affecting rights in registered designs
(1) Any person who claims to have acquired any right in or under a registered design by virtue of any transaction, instrument or event to which this section applies shall be entitled as against any other person who claims to have acquired that right by virtue of an earlier transaction, instrument or event to which this section applies if, at the time of the later transaction, instrument or event—
(a) application has not been made for the registration of particulars concerning the earlier transaction, instrument or event; and
(b) the person claiming under the later transaction, instrument or event did not know of the earlier transaction, instrument or event.
(2) Subsection (1) shall apply equally to the case where any person claims to have acquired any right in or under a registered design by virtue of a transaction, instrument or event to which this section applies, and that right is incompatible with any such right acquired by virtue of an earlier transaction, instrument or event to which this section applies.
(3) This section applies to the following transactions, instruments and events—
(a) the assignment of a registered design or a right in or under it;
(b) the mortgage of a registered design or the granting of security over it;
(c) the grant or assignment of a licence or sub-licence or mortgage of a licence or sub-licence under a registered design;
(d) the death of the registered owner or one of the registered owners of a registered design or any person having a right in or under a registered design and the vesting by an assent of personal representatives of a registered design or any such right; and
(e) any order or directions of a court or other competent authority transferring a registered design or any right in or under it to any person and the event by virtue of which the court or authority had power to make any such order or give any such directions.

### Registered Designs Ordinance 《註冊外觀設計條例》

35. Rights of third parties to continue use of registered designs
(1) A person who in Hong Kong before the filing date of an application for registration of a design—
(a) does in good faith an act which would have constituted an infringement of the design if it had been registered at the time the act is done; or
(b) makes in good faith effective and serious preparations to do such an act,
has the rights specified in subsection (2).
(2) The rights referred to in subsection (1) are—
(a) the right to continue to do or, as the case may be, to do the act referred to in subsection (1);
(b) if such act was done, or such preparations had been made, by an individual in the course of a business—
(i) the right to assign the right to do the act or to transmit such right on death; and
(ii) the right to authorize the doing of the act by any of his partners for the time being in the business in the course of which the act was done or the preparations had been made; and
(c) if such act was done, or such preparations had been made, by a body corporate in the course of a business, the right to assign the right to do the act or to transmit such right on the body’s dissolution,
and the doing of such act by virtue of this subsection shall not constitute an infringement of the design concerned.
(3) The rights specified in subsection (2) shall not include the right to grant a licence to any person to do an act referred to in subsection (1).
(4) Where an article is disposed of to another person in exercise of a right conferred by subsection (2), that other person and any person claiming through him may deal with the article in the same way as if it had been disposed of by the owner of the design concerned.

36. Declaration of extreme urgency
The Chief Executive in Council may, for the purposes of applying sections 37 to 39 by regulation declare a period of extreme urgency whenever he considers it to be necessary or expedient in the public interest for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community or for securing sufficient supplies and services essential to the life of the community. 
(Amended 22 of 1999 s. 3)

### Registered Designs Ordinance 《註冊外觀設計條例》

37. Government use of registered designs
(1) During a period of declared extreme urgency a public officer authorized in writing by the Chief Executive or any person authorized in writing by such public officer may in relation to a registered design, without the consent of the registered owner, do any act in Hong Kong in relation to the design as appears to the public officer or person to be necessary or expedient in connection with the urgency giving rise to the declaration under section 36. (Amended 22 of 1999 s. 3)
(2) Any act done in relation to a registered design by virtue of this section is in this Ordinance referred to as use, or Government use, of the design; and use