The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) forged new Intellectual Property (IP) partnerships this week with Cambodia, China and other ASEAN countries.
This will enable Singaporean enterprises to use IP partnerships to access foreign markets, strengthening Singapore’s role as a global IP hub.
IPOS announced the partnerships at the culmination of IP Week @ SG 2020, held online from August 25 to 27 and attended by over 5,000 guests from around the world.
IPOS and Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation are working towards simpler and smoother processes for registering designs and patents.
IPOS International and China’s Capital Intellectual Property Services Association have also pledged to partner and provide collaboration opportunities for IP firms, enterprises, research institutes and universities from Singapore, ASEAN and China. They will also jointly organise seminars and training programmes to promote and increase knowledge and capabilities in IP protection, commercialisation, and management for enterprises in the region.
IPOS and Myanmar’s Intellectual Property Department will collaborate in a variety of areas such as patent work-sharing arrangements like a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) – a pilot programme which aims to accelerate the examination process of patent applications, a patent reregistration agreement and outsourcing of patent search and examination work.
IPOS and Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property agreed to cement further cooperation through a PPH.
IPOS and Ecuador’s National Service of Intellectual Rights are working together to share best practices and knowledge in IP and intangible assets management.
Earlier this year, the Lao PDR’s Department of Intellectual Property, Ministry of Science and Technology officially appointed IPOS as a competent International Searching and Preliminary Examining Authority (ISA/IPEA). Signed on July 7, enterprises can now rely on a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) report from IPOS to accelerate their patent grant in other countries.
This year’s IP partners include the World Intellectual Property Organisation, The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom, The United States Patent and Trademark Office, China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, and the Japan Patent Office and Japan External Trade Organisation, among others.
“Global IP cooperation has taken on greater importance and urgency during the pandemic, especially given the many new medical discoveries that are being made in the fight against Covid-19,” says Mrs Rena Lee, Chief Executive of IPOS.
“The agreements will strengthen global partnerships, which will in turn make it easier and faster for enterprises to respond to the pandemic and grow their business worldwide using Singapore as hub for their IP activities.”
