Spotlight On Singapore: Intellectual Property Trends in Singapore

As the international intellectual property (IP) market becomes increasingly collaborative, countries interested in growing their IP Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will continue to adapt laws and regulations to increase the ease of IP generation and to increase collaborations with international partners. Addgene’s feature Spotlight on... strives to capture a snapshot of an evolving IP marketplace and its role in the global IP landscape.

IP Spotlight: Singapore

International collaborations have spurred conversations about the way IP is maintained, shared, and regulated globally. Patent and trademark filings within the tech sector have increased worldwide, resulting in legislation adjustments to accommodate the changing global IP/research marketplace. Recently, in conjunction with The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, Singapore’s Ministry of Law accepted a plan to promote Singapore as an international IP hub.

Published in April of 2013, Singapore’s plan outlines a 10-year IP promotion strategy for the city-country. According to the 10-year plan, in 2010, Singapore received $1.9 billion USD in royalty and licensing fees. This sum represents approximately 5% of total IP royalty and licensing receipts in Asian markets. By facilitating IP-related financing and international collaborations, Singapore hopes to increase its share of Asian receipts to 23% and position itself as a major hub in the Asian IP marketplace, alongside Japan and China.²

In addition to laying out a plan to increase royalties for Singapore from IP, the plan will ensure that laws governing IP management in Singapore actively meet international standards, making it an attractive location of IP activity worldwide^1,2,12. Some of Singapore’s strategies for becoming an IP hub in Asia include the assembly of strong patent search and examination teams and regular review of international and domestic standards. Such active involvement in global IP management would allow Singapore to become a central location for resolution of IP disputes and patent filings in Asia and to become one of the top three IP locations in Asia.^1,2

By investing in the domestic generation of IP and encouraging collaboration with international partners, Singapore plans to increase the visibility of domestic research and development (R&D) to aide its position as a budding IP hub. Already Singapore’s government is funding collaborative projects between the domestic institutions and international partners across Australia⁵, North America¹⁰, Asia^8,9, and the European Union, including France³, Sweeden⁴, and the United Kingdom⁷. Domestically, Singapore is pledging funding to Nanyang Technological University, Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), and other research institutions^6,11.

Addgene is excited to participate in Singapore's IP plan by helping Singaporean scientists collaborate with their global colleagues through plasmid sharing. Over the last few years Addgene's distribution of plasmids to researchers in Singapore has steadily increased. Over 6,000 plasmids have been distributed to date to researchers in the city-country. Recently, Addgene visited Singapore to learn more about how Addgene can further help the collaborative research process. During the visit, Addgene team members met with scientists and IP managers to gain a better understanding of how to more easily facilitate the sharing of plasmids and to better understand how plasmid import/export regulations affect plasmid sharing in the country. As a result of this visit, Addgene is now better equipped to help scientists in Singapore share their materials outside of their country. By understanding import/export laws and by working with IP managers in institutions within Singapore, Addgene looks forward to further increase collaborations between researchers in Singapore and their international colleagues.

Read More

1. IP as new growth area: Government accepts IP Hub Master Plan recommendations; rolls out initiatives to develop Singapore as a global IP hub in Asia
2. IP Hub Master Plan Report
3. Three Research Collaboration Agreements (RCAs) were inked on Thursday between Servier, France’s largest privately-owned pharmaceutical company, and A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN)
4. KI - Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
5. Australia, Singapore pledge commitment to further scientific collaboration
6. A*STAR, NSC, NTU Collaborate to Advance Skin Research, S$100 Million-Investment to deliver better health and wellness outcomes for skin
7. UK collaboration in Singapore: institutional case study
8. iSTART@China
9. Japan-Singapore Research Collaboration To Tackle Eye Diseases
10. Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School
11. Singapore’s R&D investments seeing encouraging outcomes, says NRF – 17 September 2013
12. Government Investing $65 Million to Ramp Up IP Manpower and Capabilities in Singapore

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