Tasneem Haq

ISTMA is an acronym for the Institute of Singapore Trade Mark Agents which is a professional-only organisation comprising high calibre trade mark service providers in Singapore such as agents, lawyers, consultants and advisers. ISTMA represent professionals who protect the rights and interests of trade mark owners. hslegal LLP’s Murgiana Haq as President of ISTMA offers a round-up of ISTMA’ acitivities in 2021 and what is ahead for the coming year. Read more here; http://istma.sg/news/istma-2021-round-up/

Singapore’s government recently launched an initiative to increase enterprises’ access to IA/IP advisory and IA/IP-related services. An enterprise-centric online platform named “IP Grow” will be created to help enterprises identify IA/IP challenges in their business journey and connect them to the right IA/IP service providers and solutions. This is an initiative by IPOS International. IP Grow brings together IP-related service providers and innovators across ASEAN for information exchange,
networking and collaboration opportunities.

IP Grow is intended to support enterprises looking to pivot and grow their business through intellectual property (IP) and intangible assets (IA). Their goal is to foster an enabling environment in which an ecosystem of enterprises, service providers and partners can flourish. More information is available on https://www.ipgrow.org/

To strengthen Singapore’s value proposition as a regional and modern services hub, the Government has begun work on the Singapore Intellectual Property Strategy 2030, or SIPS 2030, for short. SIPS 2030 is a national effort to guide the on-going development of Singapore as a global intellectual property hub. One of the key thrusts of SIPS 2030 is to build Singapore as a trusted and credible hub for intangible asset valuation. Read More

Domain name dispute against an unlicensed e – pharmacy

We successfully represented a Singapore based pharmaceutical company (the “Complainant”) in a dispute before WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre against a domain name that closely resembled the Complainant’s trade mark and which was purportedly used for an unlicensed e- pharmacy website by the Respondent. The Respondent claimed that its business is based in Singapore but investigations ultimately revealed that the Respondent had a UK based address.

The disputed domain name was registered by the Respondent under the country code top level domain (ccTLDs) name “.IO”’ which stands for “British Indian Ocean Territory”.   Domain name disputes involving the ccTLDs are governed by the .IO Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, which is a variant of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy administered by WIPO. Read More

Applicants seeking registration for their designs in Cambodia and Singapore will be able to:-

*re-register their Singapore design in Cambodia

*enjoy acceleration of their Cambodia design with IPOS

More information can be found at https://www.ipos.gov.sg/docs/default-source/protecting-your-ideas/design/recognition-scenarios_sg-kh.pdf?sfvrsn=a7347859_0

If you have further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Currently the Singapore Patent Office (IPOS) is an ISA/IPEA country for PCT applications filed in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Uganda, USA and Vietnam. Our unique feature is that IPOS is able to conduct searches directly in both English and Chinese for prior art documents in both languages. However with effect from 1^st July 2020, this service is expanded to include the Republic of Korea and Lao. Read More

In November 2019,  the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and the Department of Intellectual Property, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) signed a Memorandum of Understanding which now enables Singapore granted patents to be re-registered in Laos, providing ease of patent protection and commercialisation in the two countries. For more information, please click here.

On 4 May 2020, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (“IPOS”) launched a new patent acceleration programme for innovation in all sectors called the “SG Patent Fast Track programme”. This programme  replaces the FinTech Fast Track (“FTFT”) and Accelerated Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (“AI2 ”) which were launched in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

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ISTMA is an acronym for the Institute of Singapore Trade Mark Agents. Launched in August 2019, ISTMA is  a professional-only organisation comprising high calibre trade mark service providers in Singapore such as agents, lawyers, consultants and advisers. They represent professionals who protect the rights and interests of trade mark owners.

Why do we need yet another IP organisation? Yes, there several other IP organisations in Singapore. These are primarily fraternity organisations in character. ISTMA is different. ISTMA is involved in the advancement and development of the trade mark profession specifically. They are self-regulating and independent and are the collective voice for trade mark practitioners in Singapore. To find out more about ISTMA please have a look at their website http://istma.sg/about/ and all their updates are available on http://istma.sg/news-updates/.