Singapore 2nd in ranking of world's most innovative intellectual property offices

THE Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) has clinched second spot in a latest annual ranking of the world's most innovative IP offices, second only to the European Union (EU).

Global trade publication World Trademark Review (WTR) placed Ipos alongside Chile and Spain in its IP Office Innovation Ranking for 2019, while the EU Intellectual Property Office retained pole position.

WTR described Ipos, which was also a runner-up in its inaugural study in 2017 and joint fifth in 2018, as an "innovation agency" that "has a strong focus on providing education and support in business development".

Its study covered 50 countries and examined three areas in particular - value-added propositions, online capabilities and public outreach efforts - with opinions sought from over 100 IP practitioners.

Ipos chief executive Daren Tang said the government agency is particularly pleased to be recognised for its work in helping enterprises use IP for business growth and for training Singaporeans in IP and innovation-related skills.

He added: "Innovation, technology and digitalisation 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."

He said 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."

Among initiatives in the past 12 months, Ipos launched a fast track scheme last April 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. And, in September 2018, Ipos' enterprise engagement arm IP ValueLab signed an agreement to set up an international IP innovation service centre in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City.