IP (Amendment) Bill introduced in Parliament to simplify and streamline IP processes

29 November 2021

On 1 November 2021, the Intellectual Property (Amendment) Bill (“Bill”) was tabled in Parliament for first reading.

The Bill seeks to amend the Geographical Indications Act 2014, the Patents Act, the Plant Varieties Protection Act, the Registered Designs Act and the Trade Marks Act mainly to facilitate certain changes to processes for the registration of intellectual property (“IP”) rights under these Acts, and to standardise certain provisions that are common across these Acts. The Bill also amends the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore Act to require fines and composition sums paid for offences under the various Acts administered by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (“IPOS”), to be paid into the consolidated fund.

By way of background, IPOS sought feedback on the draft Bill and corresponding amendments to the respective IP subsidiary legislation from 15 July 2021 to 5 August 2021. There was also an earlier public consultation which IPOS conducted from 17 August 2020 to 14 September 2020 to seek comments on proposed changes to simplify and streamline IP processes, and to improve user experience with digital initiatives.

For more, please read our articles titled “IPOS consults on Intellectual Property (Amendment) Bill 2021 and corresponding amendments to respective IP legislation” and “IPOS conducts public consultation on proposed changes to simplify intellectual property processes and improve user experience with digital initiatives”.

Reference materials

The Intellectual Property (Amendment) Bill is available on Singapore Statutes Online sso.agc.gov.sg.