Funding

Maximum grant: HK$250,000, or 90% of the direct patent-application cost, including search and technical assessment, whichever is lower.
The applicant or the company pays the rest of the patent application cost
The patent grant cannot be transferred and is valid for three years from approval

Eligibility

Has never owned a patent anywhere and has never received this Patent Application GrantA locally registered company, a Hong Kong permanent resident, or a Hong Kong resident permitted to stay for at least seven years, that was funded under the scheme, may apply.

For an individual, the applicant must be the sole inventor or a co-inventorthe same inventor

For a company, every inventor must be directly connected with the applicant companysuch as a proprietor, shareholder, director or employee. The scheme supports companies or people applying for a patent for the first time. If a related company has already been funded, the application will not be funded. A related company is one whose majority shareholder is the same person, or, where there is no majority shareholder, one with exactly the same shareholders.

Functional patents and inventions with a technology element and an industrial use are eligibleEligibility. Designs are not funded. The Hong Kong Productivity Council, which runs the scheme, first carries out a patent search and a technical assessment to see whether the application has a real chance of success.

Applications accepted year-round