Hong Kong Ordinances

PATENTS ORDINANCE - SECT 54

Co-ownership of patents and applications for patents

(1) Where a patent is granted to 2 or more persons each of them shall, subject
to any agreement to the contrary, be entitled to an equal undivided share in
the patent.

(2) Where 2 or more persons are proprietors of a patent, then, subject to this
section and to any agreement to the contrary, each of them shall be entitled,
by himself or his agent, to do in respect of the invention concerned, for his
own benefit and without the consent of or the need to account to the other or
others, any act which would apart from this subsection and sections 68 and 69
amount to an infringement of the patent concerned; and any such act shall not
amount to an infringement of the patent concerned.

(3) Subject to sections 13 and 55 and to any agreement for the time being in
force, where 2 or more persons are proprietors of a patent one of them shall
not without the consent of the other or others grant a licence under the
patent or assign or mortgage a share in the patent.

(4) Subject to those sections, where 2 or more persons are proprietors of a
patent, anyone else may supply one of those persons with the means, relating
to an essential element of the invention, for putting the invention into
effect, and the supply of those means by virtue of this subsection shall not
amount to an infringement of the patent.

(5) Where a patented product is disposed of by any of 2 or more proprietors to
any person, that person and any other person claiming through him shall be
entitled to deal with the product in the same way as if it had been disposed
of by a sole registered proprietor.

(6) 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.

(7) This section shall have effect in relation to an application  for a patent
as filed as it has effect in relation to a patent and-

   (a)  references to a patent and a patent being granted shall accordingly
        include references respectively to any such application and to the
        application being filed; and

   (b)  the reference in subsection (5) to a patented product shall be
        construed accordingly. [cf. 1977 c. 37 s. 36 U.K.; EPC Art. 59]