To recognize the remarkable practitioners and foster the development of local creative industries

HONG KONG, Jan. 20, 2020 — (PRNewswire) — The Asian Licensing Association (ALA) was delighted to organize a joint Awards Presentation Ceremony for its Hong Kong Licensing Awards (HKLA) 2019 and Asian Licensing Awards 2019 on 7th January in the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre to recognize the great efforts and outstanding achievements of the practitioners in the creative industries and the licensing industry and to promote the development of both sectors. The ALA was honoured to have the presence of Dr. Bernard Chan, JP, Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), as the ceremony's Guest of Honour.

Dr. Bernard Chan congratulated the 20 winners of both HKLA 2019 and Asian Licensing Awards 2019 on the occasion.

This has been the fifth edition of the HKLA, sponsored by Create Hong Kong (CreateHK) of the HKSAR Government since 2015. It is the first and unique award scheme for licensing dedicated to creative industries. A strong growth in licensing industry has been witnessed in Hong Kong, the Mainland and Asia.

As an important intellectual property (IP) trading hub in Asia, Hong Kong is embracing various competitive advantages including a comprehensive legal system on the protection of IP rights, a strong respect for contract spirit amongst the industry, advanced distribution networks, clustering of quality licensing talent with market sensitivity and close business connections with the Mainland, etc. These advantages facilitate the licensing professionals and creative talent in making use of licensing schemes to develop and market their creative works to the commercial world.

The HKLA is demonstrating the joint efforts between the Government and the trade, aiming to create an encouraging commercial environment for the local and other regions' practitioners to share the latest information and open up new business opportunities, with a view to achieving these two objectives, namely to develop a platform for international licensors, licensees, agents and manufacturers to meet together and share industry insights for further facilitating the growth of various local creative sectors; and facilitate them to expand business connection and enhance market exposure.

With the ALA's best endeavours in past five years, the HKLA has started to bear fruit. To further recognize local practitioners, the ALA decided to rename three out of the five awards under the HKLA 2019 by adding "Hong Kong" to their titles and also Silver and Bronze awards to them.

One of the awards being renamed is the Best Hong Kong New Character Design for Licensing Award, which accepts applications from Hong Kong designers with less than nine years of design-related working experience, and new character designs that have never been commercially licensed. The five finalists of this award were entitled to a free production of product samples and figurines of their characters by the ALA and promotion of these characters in the HKLA 2019's booth at the Hong Kong International Licensing Show 2020, while the character of the Gold Award winner was further produced into a mascot for participation in the Mascot Parade of the Hong Kong International Licensing Show 2020.

As for the other four awards of the HKLA 2019, the awardees were also promoted in the HKLA 2019's booth at the Hong Kong International Licensing Show 2020. In addition, the properties of the Gold, Silver and Bronze Award winners of the Best Hong Kong Property Award, Best Hong Kong Young Property Award and Best Hong Kong New Character Design for Licensing Awards are showcased at the HKTDC Design Gallery.

The HKLA 2019 received close to 100 applications to compete for the awards in the five award categories, namely the Best Hong Kong Property Award, the Best Licensee Award, the Best Promotion Campaign Award, the Best Hong Kong Young Property Award and the Best Hong Kong New Character Design for Licensing Award. Their Gold Award winner list is as below (please refer to Annex 1 for the full list):

The ALA is encouraged by the overwhelming application figures and high quality of the awardees. It is also pleased with the result of the training programs offered under the project in nurturing local licensing talent. In this edition, the two training programs focused on the design of a style guide and sales pitching techniques for licensing were commenced on 6^th September and 12^th October 2019 respectively, with the training hours increased from 6 in last edition to 12 in this edition. Specialists with rich practical experiences in the relevant fields were invited as instructors to teach the targeted participants who are local designers, new IP holders and other stakeholders in the licensing industry.

The Awards Presentation Ceremony was also held for the Asian Licensing Awards 2019, which aims to recognize the outstanding achievements of licensing practitioners throughout Asia. It comprises four award categories, namely the Outstanding Property in Asia, the Outstanding Licensee, the Outstanding Young Property and the Outstanding Asian Property (please refer to Annex 2 for the full list of awardees).

Except the Best Hong Kong New Character Design for Licensing Award, the winning property of the Gold Award in other award categories of the HKLA 2019 were nominated to compete for the Asian Licensing Awards 2019.

For further information on the Hong Kong Licensing Awards 2019 and the Asian Licensing Awards 2019, please visit: www.hklicensingawards.hk  

About Hong Kong Licensing Awards

The Hong Kong Licensing Awards (HKLA) project was launched in 2015, and came to its fifth edition in 2019. There are five award categories in the HKLA 2019, namely the Best Hong Kong Property Award, the Best Licensee Award, the Best Promotion Campaign Award, the Best Hong Kong Young Property Award, as well as the Best Hong Kong New Character Design for Licensing Award. These awards aim to recognize the outstanding achievements of the practitioners in the relevant industries and promote Hong Kong's creative industries. With a view to nurturing new talent in character design and promoting local original designs, the Best Hong Kong New Character Design for Licensing Award is dedicated to Hong Kong designers with less than nine years of design-related working experience, and their applying new character designs must have never been commercially licensed.