New IP Amendment Bill in Singapore
Singapore has always been the top innovating country in the Southeast Asia region. In addition, this country is also ranked highly on the world stage due to its constant efforts in creative innovation and economic growth. To maintain and develop from such high regards, recently, minister Edwin Tong SC, Singapore’s Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Second Minister for Law has announced the Intellectual Property Amendment Bill (IPAB) at the Singapore Parliament on January 12.
The majority of the Bill may take effect by May 2022 if IPAB is passed.
Innovation including intangible assets and intellectual property has been the main driving force behind Singapore’s success, especially in regard to economic growth in a couple of decades past.
However, as a constantly innovating country, Singapore will never satisfy with its current status. Accordingly, this country will do its best to keep up to date with the world trend, and even add to the world with its own innovations like it has done so many times before.
Accordingly, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has introduced to the public the Intellectual Property Amendment Bill (IPAB) at the Singapore Parliament.
The IPAB will include changes to Singapore’s Patents Act, the Trade Marks Act, the Registered Designs Act, the Plant Varieties Protection Act, and the Geographical Indications Act 2014.
Intellectual Property Amendment Bill (IPAB)
In the new IPAB, Singapore will have some dramatic changes incoming such as:
- Streamlining the administrative process for international patent applications which are not in English;
- Enabling partial acceptance for national trademark applications;
- Changing the post-deadline relief measure for trademark applications;
- Introducing an opposition mechanism to facilitate the correction of errors in IP applications or registrations.
With the new Bill on IP, operational efficiency will also be improved.
In regard to the patent examination process, the need for written opinions will now be eliminated. This will lead to a reduction of turnaround and processing times for a segment of the 5,000 substantive examination requests expected annually.
The revisions also streamline the patent examination review process. According to the Bill, a new cooperative mode of examination for applications for the protection of new plant varieties and shift technical and operational provisions from primary to subsidiary legislation will be introduced to allow flexibility from IPOS’s side to adapt to changing needs.
The Bill also provides legislative and procedural clarity. This is done by enhancing access to patent documents and providing transparency about the period during which an expired trademark will continue being an “earlier trademark.”
In addition, if the Bill is passed, the Registrar will now have the capabilities to issue practice directions on the manner of the filing of patent applications, mainly on the format in which sequence listings (listings of nucleotide and/or amino acid sequences) will be submitted.
Expert opinions
Regarding IPOS’ review of operations and processes through the IPAB, Minister Edwin Tong SC, Singapore’s Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Second Minister for Law stated: “This will support our businesses as they move towards the greater use of IA and IP both locally and globally. Moving forward, IPOS intends to amend the rules made under the Patents Act to require sequence listings to be filed with patent applications, where applicable.”
In his second speech before the Singapore Parliament, Tong expressed his views on the importance of intertwining between IA and IP, stating that those who innovate and make good use of their IA and IP have flourished and will develop in the future: “In fact, 90% of the value of the S&P 500 companies today lies in their IA. Today, IA accounts for more than half of the global value of assets. This is significant, as it means that intangible assets are worth more than physical assets. In other words, ideas and innovations are more valuable than the physical assets that they animate.”
*** Other Articles***
– You could visit here to see Procedure of Singapore Trademark Registration.
– You could visit here to check the required documents for filing trademark in Singapore
– You can also check the Fee of Trademark In Singapore here.
– You could check how to register trademark in Singapore here.
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