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Singapore Named Asia's Most Innovative IP Office and Second in the World

05-Mar-2019 | Source : Intellectual Property Office of Singapore | Visits : 4038
SINGAPORE – The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) announced in a press release that it has clinched the Number 2 spot for being the most innovative Intellectual Property (IP) office in the world, according to World Trademark Review (WTR), the leading global trade publication on trademark issues.

In the third edition of WTR’s annual IP Office Innovation Ranking study, Singapore has stepped up to assume the pole position in Asia, and shared its runner up ranking alongside Chile and Spain while the EU Intellectual Property Office retained its top position. WTR described IPOS, which was also a runner-up in its inaugural study in 2017, as an “innovation agency” that “has a strong focus on providing education and support in business development”.

In the 2019 study comprising 50 countries, IP offices are recognized for their “boundary-pushing tools and services”. The latest accolade for IPOS comes on the back of the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2018 report which ranked Singapore as the fifth most innovative country among 126 nations in the world, and the most innovative country in Asia.

IPOS Chief Executive, Mr. Daren Tang (邓鸿森), commenting on the agency’s latest achievement, said: “IPOS welcomes this international accolade for our transformation from an IP registry to an innovation agency to better serve our stakeholders. In particular, we are pleased to be recognized for our work in helping enterprises use IP for business growth as well as for training Singaporeans in IP and innovation-related skills.”

He added: “Innovation, technology and digitalization are now key drivers of global economic growth, and enterprise value will increasingly be in intangible assets such as IP, data and know-how. In fact, in 2018, intangible asset value overtook the value of tangible assets for the first time in history. In our journey ahead, IPOS will leverage Singapore’s top class IP regime to nurture more intangible asset rich enterprises, and develop Singapore as a place for innovative enterprises to scale up and access Asian growth markets.”

In the past 12 months, IPOS has made significant strides in supporting innovative enterprises to leverage their intangible assets to grow their business and entrenching Singapore’s position as an IP hub:

In April last year, IPOS launched its FinTech Fast Track initiative to support FinTech businesses from anywhere in the world to bring their IP to the market more speedily, through an accelerated patent-to-grant process in as fast as six months as compared to two years for normal patent applications. In December 2018, IPOS granted the first accelerated patent under this initiative to Voyager Innovations, a technology company based in ASEAN;

In September 2018, IP ValueLab – the enterprise engagement arm of IPOS – signed an MOU with the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Administrative Committee and Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co. Ltd to set up an International IP Innovation Service Centre in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City. The innovation centre will enable enterprises from both countries to use Singapore and Guangzhou as bases to access IP expertise, anchor and commercialize their IP and access key markets in ASEAN and the Greater Bay Area; and

In the recently concluded global IP Week @ SG keynote conference, IPOS forged a partnership with Lloyd’s Asia – the leading marketplace for specialist insurance and reinsurance – to introduce IP insurance products in Singapore that will enable innovative enterprises to attract capital, avert business interruption and boost their negotiating positions when they use IP in their business and to venture into global markets.

WTR’s 2019 IP Office Innovation Ranking studied 50 of the leading trademark offices from around the world. The exclusive study examined three areas in particular detail – value-added propositions, online capabilities and public outreach efforts. In all, WTR contacted over 100 IP professionals from around the world and invited them to share their insights on the non-core services from their local registries and IP offices.
 
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