In 2012, the Singapore Government sought to “raise the bar” on Singapore’s patent system – amending the Patents Act by passing the Patent (Amendment) Bill and the Intellectual Property (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill.
The main change to the Patents Act related to phasing out the “self-assessment” patent system to a “positive grant” patent system. Our colleages at Mirandah have written a summary on the systems here.
The changes to the Singapore Patents Act and Patent Rules come into force from 14 February 2014. For applications filed after 14 February 2014, the “positive grant” patent system will apply (including convention and non-convention applications, divisional application and national phase entries).
An up-to-date version of the Singapore Patents Act and Patent Rules may be found on the Attorney-General’s Chambers website.
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has today issued Patent Examination Guidelines.
