New initiatives reduce patent examination burdens

Patent applicants in Singapore will benefit from two new initiatives released by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). These aim to reduce the burden on applicants when dealing with examination requests.

The patent application process in Singapore has been significantly simplified in recent years, and currently applications proceed by either a request for examination based on a suitable search report, or a request for combined search and examination.

IPOS has now introduced initiatives to reduce extension fees and the formalities associated with certain PCT search reports, thereby providing cost and time savings to applicants.

1. Proposed pilot initiative to waive official extension fees when requesting search and/or examination report