Singapore Trademark Registration Made Easy

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), being a statutory board under the Ministry of Law, is in charge of trademark registration in Singapore. Any applicant may either deal directly with the Registrar or hire a lawyer or any trademark agent as a go-between acting on his or her behalf.

For a trademark to be registered in Singapore, it should be possible to represent it as a graphic. Such a sign could take the form of a letter, a word, a name, a signature, a numeral, a device, a brand, a heading, a label, a ticket, a shape, a colour, an element of packaging, or any combination of these. Singapore trademark law does not require evidence of use to be filed as part of the application process before the trademark registration is granted. This is in contrast to practices in other countries like the United States.

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.

Upon verifying that no prior trademarks exist that may conflict with the one being applied for, the applicant may already submit the completed trademark registration application to the Singapore Registry of Trademarks and Patents. Options for doing so include by hand, by registered post, or by filing online through the eTrademarks system. Filing fees for registering trademarks under each class is S$340 for manual processing and S$310 for online processing.

The IPOS will then conduct an administrative review of the trademark application to ensure that it is complete, that it complies with the provisions of the Trade Marks Act, and that the necessary fees have been paid. Afterwards it will issue a trademark application number and date of filing to the applicant.

During the review process, the Registry may object to your trade mark sign for whatever reason and ask you to make corrections within a certain period of time. You should fulfill the Registry’s request, or respond accordingly, before the deadline otherwise your application is deemed to have been withdrawn.

The next step is for the Registry Office to mount an extensive search for similar or conflicting trademarks. They will also review geographical names and ensure your sign conforms to the international classification of goods and services. If your sign represents pharmaceutical products, the Registry would make further investigations. They would check if your mark breaches the World Health Organisation’s INN (International Non-Proprietary Name) list, which provides common names for pharmaceutical products.

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.

If the trademark is shown to be in compliance with Singapore law, the applicant will be informed that the application for registration has been accepted. This acceptance will be published in the Singapore Trademarks Journal to allow any parties wishing to oppose the registration process two months to file their claim. Examples of valid grounds for opposition of a trademark application include the situation where the application is similar to a registered or a pending trademark, and other similar cases.

Should there be any objections, you can try to have the issue resolved. If the resolution works in your favour and the two months have passed with no further problems, you are free to register your trade mark. You will be issued with a registration certificate and you can use the trade mark freely in corporate paraphernalia.