Singapore furthers IP cooperation with Republic of Korea

28 July 2020

Singapore and the Republic of Korea (“ROK”) signed a Memorandum of Understanding which allows innovative enterprises swifter access to markets in both countries with effect from 1 July 2020. Both countries will support each other in commercialising ideas, intellectual property and intangible assets into products and services, and promote growth in industries such as technologies in medicine, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

Korean enterprises will be able to tap on the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore’s (“IPOS”) patent search and examination expertise to conduct international searches under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (“PCT”). To accelerate their patent grant in other countries, Korean enterprises may also rely on a PCT report from IPOS, an International Searching Authority (“ISA”).

IPOS’ technical expertise and bilingual abilities will be available to the Korean Intellectual Property Office in the conduct of prior art searches. This will allow enterprises to determine if an application meets criteria for patentability. Given the exponential growth in the number of Chinese publications in recent years, Korean enterprises keen to enter the Chinese market can now choose IPOS as an ISA to gain early insight into relevant prior art in the Chinese language.

Reference materials

The press release can be found on the IPOS website www.ipos.gov.sg or by clicking here.