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

15. Priority right
(1) A person who has duly filed an application for registration of a design in, or in respect of, a Paris Convention country or WTO member, or his successor in title, shall enjoy, for the purpose of registering the same design under this Ordinance in respect of any or all of the same articles, a right of priority for the period of 6 months after the filing date of the first application, subject to compliance with any prescribed conditions. (Amended 2 of 2001 s. 21)
(2) Any filing of an application for registration of a design in, or in respect of, a Paris Convention country or WTO member which is equivalent to a regular national filing under the law of that Paris Convention country or WTO member, or under any bilateral or multilateral agreement to which it is a party, shall be recognized as giving rise to a right of priority.
(3) A subsequent application for the registration of a design that was the subject of a previous application, and that is filed in or in respect of the same Paris Convention country or WTO member, shall be considered as the first application for the purpose of determining priority if, and only if, on the filing date of the subsequent application, the previous application has been withdrawn, abandoned or refused, without being open to public inspection and without leaving any rights outstanding, and has not served as a basis for claiming a right of priority.
(4) In this section, regular national filing (正規國家提交) means any filing of an application for registration of a design in, or in respect of, a Paris Convention country or WTO member that establishes the date on which the application was filed, whatever the outcome of the application may be.

16. Claiming priority
(1) An applicant who desires to take advantage of the priority of a previous application shall file with the Registrar in the prescribed manner a statement of priority and a copy of the previous application.
(2) Where a statement of priority is filed in accordance with this section, the applicant shall for the purposes of proceedings before the Registrar be deemed to be entitled to enjoy the right of priority shown in the statement.

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

17. Effect of priority right
(1) The right of priority shall have the effect that the filing date of the previous application claimed under section 16 shall be regarded as being the filing date of the application for registration under this Ordinance for the purpose of determining whether the design in question is new.
(2) Subsection (1) shall not be construed as excluding the power to give directions under section 5(3) in relation to the application for registration under this Ordinance.
(3) Where an application for registration of a design is filed under this Ordinance and the priority of a previous application is claimed under section 16, then, notwithstanding anything contained in this Ordinance, the application shall not be refused and the registration of the design under this Ordinance shall not be invalidated by reason only of the fact that the previous application has been published at any time after the filing date of the previous application.

18. Withdrawal of applications
(1) An applicant may withdraw his application for registration of a design by filing a notice of withdrawal with the Registrar before the date on which preparations for publication under section 25 have been completed, as determined by the Registrar.
(2) A notice under this section shall be—
(a) made in writing; and
(b) filed in the prescribed manner.
(3) Where a notice is filed in accordance with this section, the application shall be deemed withdrawn.
(4) A notice filed in accordance with this section is irrevocable.

19. Effect of withdrawal
Where an application for registration of a design is deemed by any provision of this Ordinance to have been withdrawn, the following provisions shall apply—
(a) the applicant shall continue to enjoy the right of priority under section 17 which he enjoyed immediately before the withdrawal; and
(b) no other right may be claimed under this Ordinance in relation to the application.

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

20. Reinstatement of applications deemed withdrawn
(1) Where an application for registration of a design is deemed to have been withdrawn following the applicant’s failure to comply with a time limit under this Ordinance (including any time limit set by the Registrar) and the applicant has by notice filed with the Registrar requested reinstatement of the application, then—
(a) any deemed withdrawal of the application that occurred as a direct consequence of the failure to comply shall be deemed to be of no effect and the application shall be treated for the purposes of proceedings under this Ordinance as if there had been no such failure; and
(b) any right or means of redress lost by the applicant as a direct consequence of the failure to comply shall be restored to the applicant.
(2) A notice under this section shall be—
(a) made in writing; and
(b) filed in the prescribed manner within 1 month after such deemed withdrawal.
(3) A notice under this section shall be deemed not to have been filed until the omission which constituted the failure to comply with the time limit has been made good.

21. Amendment of applications
(1) The Registrar may amend an application for registration of a design on request made to him by the applicant in the prescribed manner.
(2) An application for registration of a design shall not be amended under subsection (1) if, as a result of the amendment, the scope of the application would be increased by the inclusion of any matter that was not in substance disclosed in the application initially filed.

22. Division of applications after amendment
(1) Where a request for amendment of an application for registration of a design has been granted under section 21, and the amendment has the effect of excluding one or more designs from the application initially filed, the applicant may at any time while the initial application is pending make a further application, referred to in this section as a divisional application

23. Rights in applications
(1) The provisions of sections 32 to 34 (which relate to rights in registered designs) apply, with necessary modification, in relation to an application for registration of a design as they apply in relation to a registered design. 
(2) In section 33, as it applies in relation to an application for registration of a design, the reference in subsection (1) to the registration of a design shall be construed as a reference to the making of the application.
(3) In section 34, as it applies in relation to a transaction, instrument or event affecting an application for registration of a design, the references to the registration of particulars, and to the making of an application for the registration of particulars, shall be construed as a reference to the giving of written notice to the Registrar of those particulars.