Singapore Intellectual Property Blog

Grace Periods in Singapore Patent Law

3 February 2014

Updated 28 April 2014 to include general information on corresponding grace period provisions under Japanese patent law.

Under Singapore law, there is no general “grace period” provision like in for example, the United States of America.

However, there is a specific exclusion for disclosures made to “learned societies” for 12 months prior to the date of filing of the application.

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Cantab IP Guide to the Singapore Patents Act Amendments

23 January 2014

As you may be aware, a number of amendments to the Singapore Patents Act have been passed by Parliament.

These changes, together with amendments to the Patents Rules, will come into force on 14 February 2014.

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New Format for Singapore IP Application Numbers at IPOS

20 January 2014

Following our representations, IPOS has confirmed the new format for application numbers of registrable IP  (e.g., trade marks, patents, registered designs) filed on or after 14 February 2014.

The new application number format will not use alphabetic identifiers, but rather numeric identifiers.

This is the first time that IPOS has released details of the algorithm they use to calculate the check digit. They did so on our representations that the widespread availability of the algorithm is in the public interest.

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Patentscope Rubygem Released

9 January 2014

I am very pleased to announce that we have released a new Rubygem called “patentscope”. A Rubygem, also known as a gem, is a code library written in the Ruby language.

The Patentscope gem allows easy access to data from the WIPO PATENTSCOPE Web Service using Ruby. As provided by WIPO, the PATENTSCOPE Web Service is available through a SOAP interface. The documentation provided by WIPO uses Java.

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Board Member of IPOS Resigns After Failed Infringement Suit

8 January 2014

This article in the Business Times (via Singapore Law Watch) has an innocuous headline (“Mobile clinic inventors to drop suit against Mindef”), but contains what can only be described as a bombshell:

Dr Ting, chief executive officer of HealthStats International and a board member of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore ((IPOS), filed the suit [against] Mindef.

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