Singapore has recently finalized the review of registered designs and is ready to implement the amendments to the Registered Designs Act. These amendments are meant to bring Singapore’s design rights in line with the changing environment and improve the country’s design industry. Our external IP experts Mr. Max Ng and Ms. You Na Lee from the Gateway Law Corporation have kindly drafted for us today’s blog post, where they discuss these amendments and their implications to the European SMEs.
Introduction
In light of the recent technological advances and evolving business practices in the designs industry, the Ministry of Law (the “MinLaw”) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (the “IPOS”) commenced their review of the registered designs regime in Singapore in 2014, conducting 2 rounds of public consultations, and numerous focus group talks and one-to-one consultations with design associations, business, IP practitioners and academics. They have completed their joint review and released a “Final Report on the Review of Singapore’s Registered Designs Regime”, which sets out their recommendations to amend the Registered Designs Act (the “RDA”) to keep abreast of the changes in the industry.
Aims
The proposed reform is to complement the “Design 2025 Masterplan” released by DesignSingapore Council in March 2016, which sets out the government initiatives and policy framework to develop Singapore into a creativity- and innovation-driven economy and ecosystem by supporting capitalisation of the intellectual property in Singapore. Design is identified as one of the key pillars and catalysts to propel such a paradigm shift.
In the meantime, it seeks to protect interests of the users and the public, support business certainty and remain in line with international best practices, especially with other major markets. The MinLaw and IPOS have therefore taken into account different interests of all stakeholders and decided to implement some changes to the current designs regime to provide for sustainability and growth of the designs industry in Singapore. Continue reading “Upcoming Reform: Registered Designs Regime in Singapore” »
