28 July 2008
Singapore Trademark Registration Made Easy
Posted by Simon Rogove under: Business .
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), a statutory board under the Ministry of Law handles trademark registration in the city state. An individual desiring to register his trade mark may either apply directly to the Registrar or authorize a trade mark agent to act on his behalf.
Unlike in other countries, the Singapore trademarks regime does not require the filing of evidence of use before a trade mark registration is granted. However, the trade mark has to be capable of being represented graphically like any letter, word, name, signature, numeral, device, brand, heading, label, ticket, shape, colour, aspect of packaging or a combination of these.
Your main concern when filing any trade mark design is that no one else had already registered a sign that is identical or similar to yours. This is particularly pertinent when it comes to the nature of your business activities. You should perform a thorough search of trade mark signs that are already filed with the Singapore Registry of Trade Marks and available for public scrutiny at the IPOS office or via the eTradeMarks website online.
If his search for identical or similar trademarks proves negative, the applicant may then submit his completed application for trademark registration to the Singapore Registry of Trade Marks. He may file it personally, by registered post, or file it only through IPOS’s eTradeMarks system. For manual filing, the filing fee for a trade mark under each class is S$340 and for online filing, S$310.
Once the IPOS has received the trademark application, the office will conduct an administrative review to verify that the application is complete and compliant with the provisions of the Trademarks Act, as well as all necessary fees having been already paid. When these conditions are met, a trademark application number will be provided, along with the date for filing.
The applicant will be notified by the Registry if there is any ground for objection, including the corrections required and the specified period of time granted given him to overcome the objection. The application is considered withdrawn if the applicant fails to respond to the notice within the period granted.
Afterwards, the Registry Office will conduct their own formal search for conflicting trademarks, geographical names, and conformity to the standards of international classification for goods and services. If pharmaceutical products are being registered, the Registry of Trademarks will also verify whether the mark consists of a protected International Non-Proprietary Name (INN). Furnished by the World Health Organization, INNs are generic names for specific pharmaceutical substances.
Upon completion of this process of trademark conflict discovery, a further examination of the application will be made to ensure that the trade mark may be registered in accordance with Singapore Trademark Laws. If the trademark lacks a distinctive character, for example, it falls under areas not allowable by Singapore law-the examiner will make sure that this is not the case. Again, any problems in this stage will result in the applicant being informed of the nature of the objections and given a specific timeframe to resolve these issues.
Once your sign fulfills Singapore Trade Mark Laws, you move on to the final stage, which is to publish your mark for public consumption. You will be notified that your mark is accepted for registration before it is published in the Trade Marks Journal. This gives members of the public a chance to object if they believe your design is identical or similar to a mark that is already registered or pending. Any member of the public has the right to object within two months of publication.
If no objections were made against the application in the allotted two months, or if all objections that are raised end up resolved in the applicant’s favor, the trademark will finally be declared as registered. The applicant will be given a registration certificate attesting to the successful process of registering a trademark in Singapore.