Patent registration in Singapore. Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. Singapore is the only country in Asia with a AAA sovereign rating from all major rating agencies. This country is a major financial and shipping hub and has been identified as a tax haven. Singapore is placed highly in key social indicators: education, healthcare, quality of life, personal safety, and housing. Singaporeans enjoy one of the world’s longest life expectancies, the fastest Internet connection speeds, and one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in Singapore.
Patent in Singapore
According to Singapore law, a patent in this country is a grant of a property right given by the Government to an inventor. With a patent, the inventor, or the patentee will have the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling the invention in a country, or importing the invention into a country, along with other rights to protect their best interests.
To be patentable in Singapore, an invention must satisfy the requirement of new, inventive, and industrially applicability.
In addition, an invention that is patentable can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
On the other hand, the subjects that are unpatentable in Singapore are:
- Discoveries, laws of nature, and mathematical methods;
- Aesthetic designs;
- Systems, rules, and methods for the performance of mental labor, games or management, computer programs;
- Presentation of data and abstract ideas.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Singapore
The necessary documents for patent registration in Singapore include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s names, addresses, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
The procedure for patent registration in Singapore
To obtain a patent in Singapore, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Singapore.
To be granted a patent in this jurisdiction, the applicant must acknowledge that the information about the granted patent will be published publicly in the Patent Journals.
It should be noted that although the information becomes public, the right over the patented invention will remain to belong to the patentee.
If any parties try to infringe upon the rights of the patentee, the latter will have the right to sue them in court. The patent still has the right to sue even when the patent has not been granted to them yet.
In addition, one other keynote for the applicants is that if they decide to withdraw from the patent registration process after its publication, they would no longer be eligible for obtaining patent protection for that invention anymore since it has lost its novelty.
The patent application, after being filed, will undergo a search and examination process which can be taken in the order that the applicant wants
The examination report or supplementary examination report will indicate whether the invention meets the legal requirements for patentability in Singapore.
If the patent application is unregistrable, the examiners will inform the applicant in a written opinion. The applicant has the responsibility to respond to the written opinion, either by accepting the decision and making amendments or request the examiners to review the written opinion.
If the patent application meets the requirement, the applicant has 2 months to submit an application for the actual grant of the patent. The patent will then be granted to the applicant and will have 20 years of validity.
To maintain this validity, the patentee needs to pay annual maintenance fees. The first 4 years have no maintenance fee.
You can see a list of Singapore IP firms here.