The Patent Application Grant

All locally incorporated companies, Hong Kong permanent residents or Hong Kong residents permitted to remain in Hong Kong for not less than 7 years which/who have never owned any patents in any countries or territories before will be eligible. For individual applicant, the applicant must be the sole inventor or one of the joint inventors of the invention. For applicant company, the inventor(s) of the invention shall be a directly related party/parties to the applicant company, e.g. owner, shareholder, director, or staff. As the PAG is for first-time patent seekers only, funding support will not be provided if PAG has been granted to the applicant company's related companies (i.e. (1) company(ies) having a major shareholder (viz. those with 50% or more ownership) in common with the applicant company or (2) company(ies) without major shareholder(s) but having shareholders identical to those of the applicant company) before. For an approved application, a grant of not more than HK$250,000 or 90% of the sum of the total direct cost of the patent application (including the cost for patent search-cum-technical assessment), whichever is the lower, will be provided. Funds are only released to the implementation agent through which the patent application is processed. The grant is for covering the direct cost for patent search-cum-technical assessment, as well as other direct costs involved in the patent application process. Examples are attorney fees, consultant fees and filing of patent applications. Other expenses, including any costs incurred before the date of approval of the application and the renewal fee of granted patents, are not fundable. The grant is non-transferrable and will be valid for 3 years from the date of approval of the application. The grant may not be sufficient to cover the patent application expenses, and individual applicant/applicant company has to bear the remaining balance.