Patent is the exclusive right, granted by the government, to make use of an invention or process for a specific period of time. In other words, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a Government to an inventor or his assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention. The procedure for granting a patent, the requirement placed on the patentee and the extent of the exclusive rights vary between countries according to national laws and international agreements. However, a patent application must include one or more claims defining the invention which must be new, inventive and industrially applicable.
Under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, patents should be available in WTO member states for any inventions, in all fields of technology, and the term of protection available should be the minimum twenty years.
Patent can be a product or process that provides a new technical solution to a problem. This could be relatively a new method of doing an activity, the composition of a new product or a technical improvement on how certain thing work. E.g. an anti-theft device for a vehicle, a ring pull tab for a can or a computerized mousetrap.
Requirements for Patents
- New Process or Product
- Inventive Step
- Industrial Application
Registration
- Registration fee is about S$400 per patent and is paid to IPOS.
- Professional fee is charged by the company filing the patent on behalf of their clients. Usually professionals fees range from S$1500 to S$5000 depending on the complexity of the patent.
- The estimated processing time is 2-4 years depending on several factors (for e.g. whether one needs to amend the patent, whether the patent has been challenged etc).
For further details on registration fees for patents, please visit:
Intellectual Property Office Of Singapore
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS),a statutory board under the Ministry of Law since April 2001, is the lead government agency that advises on and administers intellectual property (IP) laws, promotes IP awareness and provides the infrastructure to facilitate the development of IP in Singapore.
