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In response to media enquiries concerning personal and commercial information provided by people seeking to oppose trademark registration being published on the Internet, the Director of Intellectual Property, Mr Stephen Selby, today (April 1) made the following statement:
"I am deeply concerned about the situation, and I apologize that we had not done more to avoid unsolicited personal or business information submitted by the public being published on the Internet without their full knowledge.
"I have blocked Internet access to such information and we are urgently assessing the extent of the problem.
"In addition to the data protection notice currently provided in the specified forms, we are urgently considering what can be done to ensure that the public would better understand that the information they provide may be published on the Internet. We shall also consider how to strengthen our internal procedures to avoid unsolicited personal or business information submitted by the public being published on the Internet without their full knowledge.
"We shall be contacting the Privacy Commissioner to obtain advice on how best to balance the need to protect personal data with the legal obligation to make the relevant information available to the public in trademark proceedings."
Ends/Sunday, April 1, 2007
Issued at HKT 21:28
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