FWIW, HSBC is a British bank doing lots of business in HK.
Patent ownership as security on a loan isn’t the same as active involvement or control. The patents themselves are public documents. What HSBC had was a security interest in any income that would flow from sale of the patents if Dominion defaulted on its loan.
Or, so it seems to me.
From a comment on thedonald: HSBC’s main market has shift from local (HK)to China for the last 10+ years, and it has throw most of all its capitals into PRC’s debt market.