Singapore IP News
Tap new technology now
What is the best thing to do if you are just a small or medium size enterprise in these very trying times, where uncertainty seems to pervade everywhere? While waiting for economic recovery to come, sooner or later, can we just cut cost, downsize and tighten our belts? Well, according to a group of intellectual property experts participating in an international forum here, this is the best time to pull up our socks and prepare when the good times come. We have to be able to push ahead of others and we have to create that environment that will spring us forward when the demand comes. It would be best if we can create something new, or shop around for new technology that can be bought for a song.
Guriqbal Singh Jaiya, director for SME’s at WIPO, who was present at the 28th Asia Pacific Cooperation Intellectual Property Experts Group seminar, advices companies to look hard at their R&Ds to bring out new techniques and products or if they lack the ability to churn out their own product, at least they should go and scout around for new ideas. They should also explore joint ventures with other companies which have synergistic models. Indeed there are plenty of ideas in institutions of higher learning that are waiting for commercialization, and linking up with them will make a good business sense.
Elaine Wu, attorney advisor for the USPTO, at the same seminar, talked about some of the successes that have come out through partnerships, like the nicotine patch and Google technologies. Another speaker, Viktor Cheng, from IPOS also hinted that this is the best time to acquire new technology as it is going cheap now. However, he cautioned that results might not be soon enough, so companies must prepare for the long haul. Preparation is now, rather than waiting for the right signal to come from the west.
Apparently, ideas make the world go round, and it has never been a better time than now to pursue new ideas and technologies that will give you that added push when the world economy begins to move forward again later on.
Singapore office for WIPO
Xinhua News Agency has just reported that WIPO (world intellectual property organization) will be setting up an office in Singapore by January 2010. This has been agreed by Singapore's Ministry of Law and Media Development Authority. It will be the first ever center set up in the Eastern region outside Geneva. There has been an increase in activities of intellectual property filings since 2001, mainly in China, India and Korea and in order to cope with the expected increase of IP infringement cases, WIPO sees it fit to set up the office so that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services in the Asia-Pacific region can be promoted.
Besides ADR, WIPO will also provide training and advice on procedures for arbitration, mediation and expert determination. Complaint cases from the Asia Pacific area filed with WIPO will also be dealt with. Singapore, with its efficient legal system will make it cost effective in the arbitration of IP disputes among the combatants in the surrounding areas. Apart from the normal IP disputes, WIPO will also establish a department to look into the mediation of film based controversies. Director General Francis Curry, on behalf of WIPO, thanked the Singapore Government for the co-operation rendered.
30, July 2009.
What Water Crisis?
Just how soon will we face a real water crisis with all these global warming predictions? Maybe sooner than you thought! Already, parts of China, Australia, Africa, India and South America is facing constant drought. Some of the great river basins like the Nile, Indus, Yellow river, Middle East, and even the Amazon is getting to grips with a drastic reduction of water flow that neighboring states have been thrown into near war! And it is true; we will face a world water crisis pretty soon. As a sign of the dire situation, many countries are putting their money into research into turning waste and sea water into drinkable fluid and among the van guide of water purification countries, Singapore has emerged as a pioneer in resurrecting waste water into drinkable water. Still, it has to use old technology to make things happen.
In a recent citing of new technology in water purification, researchers in Sandia National Laboratories in the US has reported that they have come up with a technique that can improve on the efficiency of water purification. They have come up with a method of substituting just a single atom in a compound coagulant used for water treatment. In a normal water treatment method, coagulants (alum) are mixed into the water to bring into coagulation (thus settling as sediments) those compounds that are not wanted in the fluid. The atom substitution is done in bulk, using a ‘gallium’ salt, and it seems that this method will give a more stable reagent as well as a more effective trapping of micro solids, bacterium, viruses, organics and inorganic compounds. Sandia is presently working with water treatment companies to exploit the technology and hopefully, they will be able to move water treatment methods to a higher level, before we face a global water crisis.
October 22, 2009.
Does Singapore require a three-strike policy?
We already have a three-strike copyright policy enforced in Korea and France and one coming up in the UK. Is Singapore following suite? Rumors had it that Singapore is considering adopting such a policy. However, a recent statement from the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) indicates that there will not be an adoption of the policy anytime soon. One of the reasons given was that even if the internet user is taken out from a service provider, there is no guarantee that they will not hop unto somebody’s line to continue the illegal downloading, where most family members have separate lines. And in tiny Singapore, if just a few thousand users are taken out of the grid, the effect could cause the internet service providers to feel the pinch. Here, business is top priority and if internet users are deprived of using their lines, they could easily use a neighboring country’s mobile line!
November 19, 2009.
Largest Arbitration center in the East.
Singapore is on target to be the largest arbitration center in Asia. With the setting up of Maxwell Chambers, it is on course to make itself the arbitration center of the region. Working together with other arbitration organizations like the American Arbitration Association (AAA), the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), the Arbitration and Mediation Centre of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO-AMC), the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and the International Mediation Institute, there will be no doubt that it will succeed in reducing the number of court proceedings involving intellectual property in this part of the world.
January 30, 2010.
A hard hitting MIT man shooting from the hip
Professor Huang Yasheng , a MIT political economist had this to say about state enterprises. “Civil service culture is about discipline. It’s about execution. It’s about efficiency. Entrepreneurial culture is about challenging the authorities, questioning the existing ways of doing businesses, moving away from the routines and norms. It’s about the unconventional, rebellious and diverse. These values are almost polar opposites”. He was referring to the problems that is facing Singapore brought about because the island’s economic investments was for decades being miss-managed by two sovereign wealth funds, Temasek Holdings and GIC. The two funds had lost billions of dollars in investments during the 2009 financial crises. Had the money being placed in the hands of entrepreneurs instead of managers who don’t have any experience in industries, Singapore could have averted its worst recession in decades. Will Singapore take heed of the professor’s advice?
February 23, 2010.
Singapore embraces the PPH
The Singapore Patent Office (IPOS) and the USPTO has signed an agreement on enforcing a mutual enforcement of accelerated examination of filed patents termed the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH). Under the agreement, a patent with a first filing in Singapore can ask for an accelerated examination of a second filing in the United States. With the PPH agreement, when either one of the filings gets a grant, the other one will automatically be granted a patent. This is a super duper way to accelerate the prosecution of patents, without having to amend existing patent laws.
May 13, 2010.