I. Background Symphony Holdings Limited v. Skins IP Limited [2025] SGIPOS 3 concerned an opposition by Symphony Holdings Limited (the “Opponent”) against an application by Skins IP Limited (the “Applicant”) to register the following word trade mark, “SKINS”, (the “Subject Mark”) in Singapore. The Opponent, a Hong Kong-based sports-branding company, opposed the application based on […]
Publications
The microRNA discovery: Singapore and Philippine patent applications
With the selection of the 2025 Nobel Prize laureate(s) in Physiology or Medicine (NPPM) now in the evaluation phase, it is worth revisiting 2024’s winners and ruminating the impact their discovery has had on patent applications filed in Singapore and the Philippines. The 2024 NPPM was jointly awarded to scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun […]
EP patent validation in Laos
Following the Validation Agreement signed between the Laos Department of Intellectual Property (‘DIP’) and the European Patent Office (‘EPO’), European patent holders can now extend their patent protection to Laos without the need for a separate national application, effective 1 April 2025. This makes Laos the sixth country worldwide, and the second in Southeast Asia […]
Singapore – Expansion of IPOS’ Collaborative Search and Examination (CS&E) Programme with Indonesia
In addition to the existing CS&E programme with IP Viet Nam, IPOS has expanded its CS&E programme with the Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DGIP), Indonesia to expedite the prosecution process for parties who have an interest to pursue patent applications in both countries. This pilot programme was introduced on 2 January 2025 for 2 […]
Singapore – Fonterra Brands v. Consozio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano
In Fonterra Brands (Singapore) Pte Ltd v. Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano [2024] SGCA 53 (Fonterra), the Court of Appeal illuminated the Singapore courts’ position on the protection of geographical indications under the Geographical Indications Act 2014 (GIA). Fonterra Brands (a wholly owned subsidiary of a New Zealand-based cooperative company owned by 10,000 New Zealand dairy […]
IPOS-MyIPO PPH Pilot Program
Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is a work-sharing program that accelerates the examination of a patent application in a country’s patent office (the Office of Later Examination, or OLE) by relying on the search and examination results from another country’s patent office (the Office of Earlier Examination, or OEE). On 18th January 2025, the Intellectual Property […]
Updates to Singapore’s regulations relating to patent linkage
Amendments to Singapore’s Health Products (Therapeutic Products) Regulations (the TPR) came into force on August 1, 2024, relating to patent linkage. By way of background, the patent linkage regime in Singapore under the TPR before the amendments came into effect on August 1, 2024, requires an applicant for product registration and marketing approval of a […]
An Amazon discovery
This recent Intellectual Property Office of Singapore decision delved into the registrability of an AMAZON-formative mark sought to be registered by a Singapore-incorporated company. Background Survivalverse Pte Ltd (the applicant) is a Singapore-incorporated company that principally develops videogames and software, which applied to register the mark (the application mark) in Classes 9 and 41, to be […]
SINGAPORE: IPOS Examiner Rejects Registration of Scientific Abbreviation
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has refused to register a scientific abbreviation as a trademark even though the applicant was the first to discover the substance. In the matter of a trademark application by BioMedical Research Group Inc. & Anor. ([2024] SGIPOS 3), BioMedical Research Group Inc. and Macrophi Inc. sought to register the mark in […]
Singapore: IPOS launches free deferment of patent prosecution as pilot initiative
In response to the growing interests of applicants in having more time to decide how best to prosecute their Singapore patent applications in alignment with their global patenting strategies and IP commercialization developments, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has launched a pilot initiative to allow eligible applicants to defer the filings of request […]