CityUHK Science Patent Challenge 2024-25
The 3rd CityUHK Science Patent Challenge: learn about intellectual property, win a chance to own a patent and be a real inventor!
Eligibility:
- Contestants: Full-time secondary school students in Hong Kong.
- School-based submission: Each School can submit at most two entries. Teachers and students are recommended to attend the information session and intellectual property workshop offered by the College of Science (“CSCI”), City University of Hong Kong (“CityUHK”).
- Each school-based entry can be either on an individual basis or a team basis with a maximum of 8 students per team.
Timeline:
| 01 | 20 September 2024 |
Date: 20 September 2024 (Friday) |
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| 02 | 19 October 2024 |
Date: 19 October 2024 (Saturday) |
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| 03 | 21 October – 13 December 2024 |
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| 04 | 27 December 2024 |
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| 05 | 15 February 2025 |
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Assessment Criteria:
- Innovation
- Feasibility
- Impact
- Presentation
Enquiry:
csci.office@cityu.edu.hk / 3442-7765
Important Dates
| Date | Activity |
| 20 September 2024 | Information Session |
| 19 October 2024 | Intellectual Property Workshop |
| 21 October – 13 December 2024 | Online Consultation Sessions |
| 27 December 2024 | Entry Deadline |
| Late January 2025 | Announcement of shortlisted teams |
| 15 February 2025 | Final Pitch |
| February – August 2025 | Application for the Hong Kong Short-term Patent |
Terms and Conditions
A. Submission
- All submission(s) must be sent to CityUHK via email no later than 27 December 2024 HKT23:59.
- Any submission containing elements of threatening, abusive, obscene, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate content will not be considered by CityUHK. CityUHK reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify any submission if it is of the opinion that such submission is inappropriate or contrary to the spirit or intention of the Competition.
B. Patent
- The School should procure that Contestants have read the information on patents published by the Government of the HKSAR (https://www.ip.gov.hk/en/types-of-ip/patents/what-is-a-patent/index.html) before attending the workshop and briefing session offered by CSCI, CityUHK.
- CityUHK will instruct a patent attorney of its preference to file an application for one Hong Kong Short Term Patent (“Patent”) for the invention of each of the top three winners of the Competition.
- The School has the right to choose whether to make a patent application or not. If the School decides not to file a patent, Contestants from the School will be considered as having withdrawn from the Competition with immediate effect.
- Application for the Patent will be filed in the name of the School, that is, the School will effectively be the applicant or owner of the Patent. In order to ensure that the School is the rightful owner of the invention, it must ensure that the invention is assigned from each of the Contestants to the School.
- The Schools of the Gold and Silver winning teams are expected to seek an agreement with each of the Contestants (and their guardians if applicable) to assign ownership of the invention to the School, and a confirmatory assignment between the School and each of the Contestants (and their guardians if applicable) before an application for Patent is made. The School shall be responsible to take all necessary steps and do and execute any act, document and thing for the purpose of applying for the Patent.
- CityUHK does not guarantee the successful granting of the Patent, which is regulated by the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department. Under no circumstances should CityUHK be held responsible or liable should the application fail.
- Once the Patent is granted, CityUHK will hand over the control of the Patent to the School. The School will be responsible for the administration and maintenance of the Patent at its own expense, and may instruct any patent attorney to take any further action as it sees fit.
- CityUHK retains the rights to disqualify the School or any of its Contestants from the Competition at any time. For example, (i) in the sole discretion of CityUHK, the School or any of the Contestants has violated any term in these Terms and Conditions; or (ii) after taking into account the prevailing circumstances and in its sole discretion, CityUHK determines that it is not possible or practicable to file an application for Patent; or (iii) failure to make a submission to CityUHK on time; or (iv) the School or any of the Contestants failing to comply with the instructions of the staff or representatives of CityUHK. The determination by CityUHK is final and not subject to appeal.
C. Others
- The School shall ensure that all information provided by the Contestants is genuine and correct, and the submissions are original work and free from any third party ownership interests.
- CityUHK is not responsible for any confidentiality issues that may occur before, during and/or after the Competition.
- The School shall procure the Contestants to sign or enter into agreements on confidentiality, if any submission is shortlisted for the final pitch.
- CityUHK reserves all the rights and has the full authority to make final decisions in all matters related to the Competition without prior notification.
- The School shall not, and procure that the Contestants shall not, use the name, logo, trade or service marks and trade name of CityUHK or any CityUHK’s employees in any advertising or promotional activities without the prior written consent of CityUHK.
- The School shall procure consent from the Contestants that CityUHK and its representatives may take photographic or video footage of the Contestants for the purpose of the Competition and other educational or promotional purposes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- General Information
- Information Session & Intellectual Property Workshop
- Online Consultation Sessions
- Submission
- Final Pitch
- Awards
General Information
You may read the information on patents published by the Intellectual Property Department at https://www.ipd.gov.hk/en/patents/index.html.
Public disclosure of a pending invention can sometimes destroy patent rights. Therefore, contestants should carefully protect their ideas at all times until the patent is granted. As a protective measure, all contestants of the shortlisted entries are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before the Final Pitch, and to undertake to keep strictly confidential all information, know-how and secrets obtained or received during the course of the Final Pitch, and shall not disclose the same to any third party by any mean.
If you/your team did not win the Gold or Silver Award in CityU Science Patent Challenge in the previous intake, then you/your team can enhance the original invention idea and submit it as a new invention idea to CityUHK Science Patent Challenge 2024-25. On the other hand, you/your team are also welcome to submit a new invention idea that is totally different from the previous entry.
If you/your team won the Gold or Silver Award in CityU Science Patent Challenge 2023-24, then you/your team can submit a new invention idea to CityUHK Science Patent Challenge 2024-25.
Information Session & Intellectual Property Workshop
Students and teachers are recommended to attend the information session on 20 September 2024 at City University of Hong Kong in order to receive first-hand information.
Students and teachers are strongly recommended to attend the intellectual property workshop on 19 October 2024 at City University of Hong Kong. The workshop covers topics such as idea origination, invention process, and patent. Attendees would also be provided with details on the requirements on their entries. All attendees would receive a certificate upon successful completion of the workshop.
The information session and the intellectual property workshop would be conducted in Cantonese (with presentation materials in English).
Online Consultation Sessions
Online consultation sessions are optional and will be offered from 21 October to 13 December 2024 via Zoom. If your team already has ideas in mind or something in hand for the competition, we would be delighted to discuss them with you and provide preliminary comments as appropriate. Registration link will be available on the competition webpage in early October 2024.
The duration of each session is 30-45 minutes depending on the questions that you might have with your invention idea.
Any team can attend more than one online consultation session with genuine needs. However, priority will be given to teams that have not attended any consultation before.
Submission
The submission is on a school basis. Please talk to your school teacher and see if your school can submit an entry for you/your team.
Each school can only submit at most two entries.
The Mentor Teacher will submit the students’ invention ideas in the format of a PowerPoint deck (max. 20 slides) or a Video (max. 5 min). The PowerPoint or video must be in English. It must clearly explain and demonstrate the operation of the invention with a focus on the innovation. A prototype can be included if deemed appropriate but it is not a must. Your invention idea will be presented to the selection panel for evaluation. An online Zoom meeting will be set up with the inventor(s) for further clarification with all or part of the panel members, if deemed necessary.
Basically, your invention ideas can relate to anything but it must be patentable. The school shall ensure that all information provided by the contestants is genuine and correct, and the submissions are original work and free from any third party ownership interests. School representatives will learn more about patents at the intellectual property workshop on 19 October 2024.
Final Pitch
The Final Pitch will be held at City University of Hong Kong.
The Final Pitch will be conducted in English (for both oral presentation and visual materials).
Depending on the quality of the entries, around 8-12 entries will be shortlisted for the Final Pitch.
The College of Science will announce the shortlisted entries for the Final Pitch by 31 January 2025.
In the Final Pitch, each shortlisted team will be given 10 minutes to present their invention in front of the judging panel, followed by a Q&A session. Each team should prepare a PowerPoint deck including the key contents (a) identification of the problem, (b) specifications of the invention idea, (c) novelty of the invention idea, and (d) drawing/ photos. The contestants may also make use of other presentation materials such as a prototype as deemed appropriate but it is not a must.
Awards
The Gold and Silver Award winning teams will be provided with full fee for the application of a Hong Kong Short-term Patent and for the consultation of patent attorney. However, CityUHK does not guarantee the successful granting of the Patent, which is regulated by the Hong Kong Intellectual Property Department.
The College of Science will instruct a patent attorney to file an application for one Hong Kong Short-term Patent for the invention of each of the Gold and Silver Award winning teams. The winning teams shall work with the patent attorney to take all necessary steps and do and execute any act, document and thing for the purpose of applying for the Patent.
For the Gold and Silver winning teams, the application for the patent will be filed in the name of the school, hence the school will effectively be the applicant or owner of the patent while the contestants will be the inventors. In order to ensure that the school is the rightful owner of the invention, the invention must be assigned from each of the contestants to their school.
Winners of CityU Science Patent Challenge 2023-24
At the final pitch on 17 February 2024, shortlisted teams presented their innovative ideas on stage to our five judges: Mr. Ricky Chan, Executive Deputy Chairman of Federation of Hong Kong Industries; Mr. Olivier Cotard, Founder and Managing Director of 3C Ventures Limited; Professor Raymond Chan Hon Fu, Dean of CSCI; Professor Michael Tse Chi-kong, Associate Vice-President (Innovation) and Director of CityU Academy of Innovation; and Professor Kenneth Leung Mei Yee, Associate Dean (Research and Postgraduate Education) of CSCI.
The impressive performances of the teams made it challenging for the judging panel to decide on the awards. Here's the full list of winners (in alphabetical order of the school names for the same award):
Gold Award: Lung Kong World Federation School Limited Lau Wong Fat Secondary School
Silver Award: Diocesan Girls' School, St. Stephen's Girls' College
Bronze Award: German Swiss International School, Heung To Secondary School (Tseung Kwan O), Queen's College Old Boys' Association Secondary School, St. Stephen's Girls' College
Best Presentation Award: German Swiss International School
Congratulations to all the winners!
CityU Science Patent Challenge Press Conference (15 September 2023)
The Gold Award-winning team from Diocesan Girls’ School and the Silver Award winners from Heep Yunn School and Po Leung Kuk Ngan Po Ling College successfully obtained their Hong Kong short-term patents, with professional support from a patent attorney appointed by the College. For more details, please click here.
Winners of CityU Science Patent Challenge 2022
Secondary school students were invited to join the first CityU Science Patent Challenge 2022 by proposing creative and feasible ways to solve real life problems.
At the final pitch on 18 February 2023, shortlisted teams took the challenge to present their innovative ideas on stage to the judging panel composed of Professor Chun-Sing Lee, Dean of the College of Science, Professor Jianping Wang, Assistant Provost (Strategic Planning and Quality Assurance), Professor Shuk Han Cheng, Chair Professor of Molecular Medicine, and Mr. Jason Chiu, Chairman of Hong Kong Startup Council under Federation of Hong Kong Industries.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the competition (in alphabetical order):-
| Gold Award: | · Diocesan Girls' School |
| Silver Award: | · Heep Yunn School · Hoi Ping Chamber of Commerce Secondary School · Po Leung Kuk Ngan Po Ling College |
| Bronze Award: | · Pope Paul VI College · St. Paul's School (Lam Tin) · Wah Yan College Kowloon · Yew Chung International School - Hong Kong |
Congratulations to all the winners! Last but not least, we wish to express our gratitude to all the judges of the competition, and thank all the participants who helped make it a success.