India – Singapore agreement on industrial property rights

Share

India and Singapore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – the first bilateral MoU on industrial property cooperation between the two countries. The MoU, signed by India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), is intended to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of industrial property rights of patents, trademarks and industrial designs.

As both India and Singapore have been highly ranked for their innovative economies in the region, it is hoped that this collaboration between these two countries will help create closer ties in industrial property rights among other countries in the region.

The MoU will enable India and Singapore to exchange experiences in the areas of innovation and industrial property, which will substantially benefit entrepreneurs, investors, and businesses in India and Singapore.

Under this agreement, a Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) will be established to facilitate the bilateral exchanges and to support Indian companies in accessing Singapore’s regional intellectual property hub for their innovation related activities.

Initiatives under the MoU

The MoU sets out a number of priority initiatives:

  • IPOS will have extensive opportunities to exchange their practices, experiences and knowledge on industrial property awareness with DIPP.
  • There will be an exchange of intellectual property professionals between the two countries. This will certainly be an asset to Singapore in facilitating local firms to venture into India’s rapidly growing economy. India also has one of the fastest growing patent markets  with an 82% growth in patent grants from 2013 to 2014. It is intended that through this collaboration, the business communities of both countries will also gain further insights on the intellectual property development in India and Singapore to develop their business strategy.
  • Regular intellectual property events such as workshops, seminars and conferences will be organized by the two agencies to reach the wider industrial property community, including industry, higher education institutions such as universities and polytechnics, small and medium enterprises as well as research and development organisations.
  • Lastly, the agreement also outlines the cooperation in the development of automation and implementation of modernisation projects, such as incorporation of IT systems to allow a better management of the industrial property processes.

Information in this article was sourced from IPOS’ media release

Share
Back to Articles

Contact our Expert Team

Contact Us