The HKSAR Govt made a statement on the IP rights of the Harbour Fest. This could only come from a bozo:-
AmCham devised the idea of an international entertainment festival to be held in the autumn at the Tamar site on the harbour. However, the intellectual property rights are owned by the Government. Although the Government has given AmCham temporary custody of those rights for the next five years on behalf of the people of Hong Kong, it has made no commitment for funding beyond 2003.
There is absolutely no novelty in the idea of an international entertainment festival, and it is highly arguable whether the idea itself is any good.
I don’t like the term “temporary custody”, nor do I like the five years term. The big question is, what’s mean by “custody”? Does it mean that the AmCham gets to pocket all the profits from exploitation of the IP? Or does AmCham need to turn over all the profits to the HKSAR Govt? The IP will have very little residual value left in five years’ time, so if “custody” means some sort of exclusive licence then the HKSAR Govt might well have assigned the IP rights to the AmCham.
The HKSAR Govt is already paying HK$100M. There is no reason why anybody else gets to exploit and benefit from the resulting IP of the Harbour Fest.
I hope our Honourable LegCo members are going to scrutinize the whole thing and nail the guilty parties.