Generally, a piece of work must satisfy two basic requirements to enjoy copyright protection:
- It must be original: This means that the work must originate from the author but not copied from somewhere else, and that it involves the skill and labour of the author.
- It must be recorded in a material form: For instance, the work is recorded on film, on tape or digitally onto a device, or is written down on paper.
Once these two conditions are fulfilled, the author of the work will automatically be granted with copyright. In Hong Kong, you are not required to register or conduct any formalities such as publication or examination to obtain copyright. Moreover, no fee is payable to obtain copyright.
A work will enjoy protection under the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528) if it meets the criteria for copyright, regardless of whether the work is created in electronic form or printed form.
Through the applicability of various international copyright conventions in Hong Kong (i.e. the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Universal Copyright Convention, the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the World Intellectual Property Organization (“WIPO”) Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty), your work should also receive copyright protection in most other parts of the world.
Furthermore, according to sections 177 and 178 of the Copyright Ordinance (Cap. 528), works created by authors from any place in the world or works first published in any place in the world are protected by copyright in Hong Kong.However, as copyright does not protect works that are trivial or involve little labour and skill, names, titles and short phrases are usually not protected by copyright. Nevertheless, these can be protected as trademarks. Moreover, mere ideas do not enjoy copyright protection.