Singapore Government Press Release
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE OF SINGAPORE
MINISTRY OF LAW
PRESS RELEASE
NEW INITIATIVES TO ENHANCE SINGAPORE’S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REGIME
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) have joined hands to spearhead a series of initiatives to enhance Singapore’s intellectual property (IP) infrastructure. These initiatives have benefited both the industry professionals as well as the general public. Latest is an IP Law Course to commence next year at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore aimed at nurturing a pool of qualified patent agents, a scarce commodity here. Patent agents are specially trained in the art of drafting patent specifications and schooled in IP law.
IP LAW COURSE
2 Starting July 2001, the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (NUS) will conduct an IP Law Course for university graduates who are keen to become patent agents or in-house advisors on patents matters. Said Associate Professor Chin Tet Yung, Dean of Faculty of Law: "This course is just one of the Faculty’s strategic initiatives to help develop a core group of IP professionals. We are constantly expanding our programmes to ensure that we cater to the needs of the knowledge-based economy."
3 At the end of the 16-week foundation law course, participants will receive a ‘Graduate Certificate in Intellectual Property Law’. The course will cover topics such as patents, trade secrets, trade marks, copyrights, roles and responsibilities of patent agents, Singapore and international legal systems as well as a basic foundation in general law.
4 The IP Law Course is the first of three components, leading to the registration as a patent agent licensed to practise in Singapore. The second component is a patents drafting practice-oriented course while the third component involves an intensive internship at a local or overseas patent law firm, under the supervision of qualified patent agents. The overall programme will go towards developing a pool of qualified patent agents, competent in drafting patent specifications.
5 The IP Law Course is conducted in partnership with the Asian Patent Attorneys Association – Singapore Group (APAA), Law Society of Singapore (LSS), European Patent Office (EPO) and Federation Internationale des Conseils En Propriete Industrielle (FICPI). Today, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between IPOS, NSTB, NUS and these organisations.
OFFICIAL Launch of SurfIP PORTAL
6 SurfIP (http://www.surfip.com), powered by BIGontheNet and running on Sun and Oracle, is a first-stop, one-stop IP portal for custom and aggregated searches simultaneously across multiple patent databases as well as other technical and business sources. Since its soft launch in July this year, the portal has been enhanced with 20 added sources and an improved search engine. Said Ms Liew Woon Yin, Registrar of IPOS: "IPOS is committed to make Singapore an IP hub and work on all areas to enhance the infrastructure. One area is the provision of IP information and SurfIP serves the best purpose in today’s cyber world".
7 "With SurfIP, businesses and inventors can now have real-time, multi-lingual and targeted access to the wealth of patent, business and scientific data residing in IP-related sources worldwide", said Mr Viktor Cheng, Founder and CEO of BIGontheNet.
8 Mrs Lee Ying Adams, Assistant Managing Director (Operations), NSTB said: "These initiatives, together with the Technology and Market Information (TMI) Service Bureau, will augment the Government’s efforts in establishing an effective IP management value-chain in Singapore."
Issued by: Intellectual Property Office of Singapore
9 November 2000