On March 19, 2020, Singapore became the 58th member to join the Locarno Agreement, an international agreement on classification of industrial designs. The Locarno Agreement, also known as the Locarno Classification, is a multilateral treaty administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It will be recalled that Singapore deposited its instrument of accession to […]
Singapore: Heightened Novelty Check for Registered Design Applications
In Circular No. 1/2019 published on 5 April 2019 and a follow up Circular No. 4/2019 published on 29 November 2019, the Intellectual Property Office in Singapore (IPOS) indicated that they have heightened their check on the declaration of novelty in registered design applications. A registered design application that is not new or does not […]
Laos – Patent, Design and Plant Variety Opposition Procedures Now Available
Laos’s new Law on Intellectual Property No.38/NA of November 15, 2017 was published electronically in the Laos official gazette on May 25, 2018, and became effective 15 days subsequent to its publication. This supersedes the previous Law on Intellectual Property No. 01/NA dated December 20, 2011. The new legislation brings reform to a variety of […]
Latest Developments in Vietnam IP Law
The Vietnamese government has actively taken measures to ensure that the country’s IP laws are effective. They have recognized the relationship between economic development and IP protection. In fact the economic development in Vietnam is one of the most progressive one in Southeast Asia in terms of percentage growth of the GDP. So these IP […]