Under the present provisions of the Copyright Ordinance, parallel importation of a copyright work into Hong Kong can attract civil liability. It is also a criminal offence if the importation or subsequent sale of the parallel imported products takes place within 18 months beginning on the first day of publication of the copyright work (unless such products are imported for private and domestic use). The maximum penalty is HK$50,000 per infringing copy and 4 years’ imprisonment.
The Copyright (Amendment) Ordinance 2003 ("the Ordinance") was promulgated on July 11, 2003 (commencement date has yet to be announced) to remove the civil and criminal liabilities relating to parallel importation and subsequent dealings in computer programs. The Ordinance was introduced in response to the strong views taken by the Legislative Council and computer software users that allowing parallel importation of computer programs into Hong Kong will benefit the consumer public as this would increase
