The pilot program is “the world’s fastest application-to-grant process of its kind,” says the IPOS
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) is set to accelerate grants to patent applications in line with World Intellectual Property Day.
The theme of this year’s celebrations is “Innovate for a Green Future,” and the IPOS has developed a pilot program that it says is “the world’s fastest application-to-grant process of its kind.” Called the SG Patent Fast Track, the program will be implemented on 4 May and will run until 29 April 2022.
The grant is applicable to all technology fields; technologies that are set to benefit include healthcare-related technology, emerging technology with short product lifecycles like AI and social-impact initiatives such as the production of sustainable food, resource management and tech related to climate change.
SG Patent Fast Track will cut the usual grant consideration process from two years or more down to just six months. Patent applications must be first-filed in Singapore, must contain 20 claims or less and stay within the cap on the number of requests made, which is a minimum of five per month and 10 per year per entity.
The IPOS says that the program “reflects the important role IP offices play in supporting innovators and their solutions to address global developments in sustainable development, and particularly in current times, that of public healthcare.”
Filings for IP patents are ramping up quickly, and applications in Asia comprised over 60% of filings made in 2018. In the period of 2012-2019 alone, Singapore recorded a 46% boost in patent applications, and IPOS reports from the office’s Patent Prosecution Highway network were increasingly being used to speed up patent grants in the US, Japan, China and Europe.
“We now offer this SG Patent Fast Track programme because we understand the needs of innovators. Through this, IPOS is staying ahead of the curve, and is committed to supporting innovators and enterprises across technology sectors to bring their products and services faster to investors and global markets,” said Sharmaine Wu, the director of patents, designs and plant varieties for IPOS. “The move also strongly complements Singapore’s drive towards becoming a global research and development hub.”
In addition to the program, IPOS subsidiary IPOS International is also offering a free online course on IP essentials for businesses.
“In these unprecedented times, IP offices need to step up efforts to support solutions that deal with the global challenges,” Wu said.
SG Patent Fast Track takes the place of previous IPOS initiatives FinTech Fast Trach and Accelerated Initiatives for Artificial Intelligence. Two of the companies that benefited from these programs were Qrypted Technology and Skyrus Network.
