A recent manpower survey by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) revealed that in line with its goal of becoming a Global IP Hub in Asia, Singapore’s IP activities have boosted high valued-added jobs for the nation’s workforce. The survey was commissioned in July 2014 and sent to 10,000 companies across 17 industry clusters that had relevance to IP, such as general manufacturing, engineering and food and beverage services. The objective of the survey was to analyse the contributions of key industries to Singapore’s economy, and identify ways to develop these sectors.
It was found that the technology and business services sectors accounted for more than 80% of full-time IP employment, with the electronics sector accounting for almost 50% of IP jobs in the last three years. It was also found that the future demand for IP manpower is also expected to grow, particularly for those in the precision engineering sector.
These findings are aligned with that of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Centre (GIPC) International IP Index released on February 5 2015. The GIPC Index measures the strength of the IP laws in individual economies and evaluates the concrete benefits that a robust IP regime provides. The report showed a strong correlation between IP protection and high value-added job creation in knowledge-intensive sectors in Singapore. It also stated that, on average, more than double the workforce is concentrated in knowledge-intensive sectors in economies with high GIPC Index score such as Singapore.
IPOS said in a statement that as part of its efforts to strengthen the IP manpower base and add value to the different groups of professionals, it will collaborate with institutes of higher learning to design and implement undergraduate and post-graduate IP programmes. Additionally, IPOS has been working with relevant industries to introduce IP skills upgrading programmes and professionally certify individuals who have undergone such training.
Further, since 2012, IPOS has trained 75 patent examiners who now form part of IPOS’ Patent Search & Examination Unit, comprising mainly postgraduates with a PhD qualification to conduct Singapore’s own patent search and examination. This also aligns with IPOS’ Search and Examination Unit being successfully awarded the ISO 9001:2008 certification for the provision of patent search and examination services on November 3 2014. Achieving this certification reinforces IPOS’s commitment to provide a thriving and vibrant IP environment in Singapore.