The Singapore Law Review

In this special interview, the Director-General of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), Ms Liew Woon Yin, shares with us IPOS’ work in strengthening the IP regime and promoting greater IP awareness in Singapore.

Q: We understand that the organisation was called the Registry of Trade Marks and Patents from 1937 to 1999. Why the change of name to IPOS?

The change of name was to reflect our expanded scope to cover a larger range of Intellectual Property (IP) laws in addition to trade marks and patents. It was also to signify our conversion to a statutory board in 2001 under the Ministry of Law.

Q: What role does IPOS play today? Is IPOS’ role likely to expand in the future?

IPOS is the lead government agency that formulates and regulates IP laws, promotes IP awareness and provides the infrastructure to facilitate the greater development of IP in Singapore. With IP fast becoming a critical resource in today’s new economy, IPOS’s vision is to foster a creative Singapore where ideas and intellectual efforts are valued, developed and exploited. More information on IPOS can be found on www.ipos.gov.sg.

Q: Take us through some of the various IPOS initiatives - what are their aims and how effective have they been?

IP Parade
The SurfIP IP Parade is a platform where IP/technology owners can evaluate, exploit and commercialise their IP/technology. It enables IP owners to market, license or sell their technology solutions and IPs by listing them on the IP Parade.

As part of a new private-public sector collaboration, IPOS has licensed the rights to operate and manage SurfIP.com to private sector player. The licensing of SurfIP’s successful brand to a private entity with good business acumen will bring about new enhancements to the portal as well as better value-added services for the global IP community. For instance, a new feature is the match-making service to broker between suppliers of technology and investors with demand.

HIP Alliance
HIP stands for ‘Honour Intellectual Property’. The HIP Alliance is a group of Government agencies, private and industry associationswith a common interest in pursuing the need for education on IP. In partnership with the HIP Alliance members, the Alliance is teaching people to respect and reward original creative works by Saying NO! to Piracy. By urging Singapore to Say NO! to Piracy, the HIP Alliance and IPOS are encouraging people to Be original, Be Creative, Be HIP and to Live for Real.

To date, we have about 7,000 HIP-Friends who are members of the public who have pledged their respect for IP. We have also launched a HIPFriends website to engage these HIPFriends actively.

IP Education and Resource Centre (IPERC)
IPERC is both a physical centre and brand name for a series of IP educational programmes. Opened to the public, the physical centre is located in IPOS, where the public can gain access to comprehensive, up-to-date IP research materials.

IPERC also provides educational programmes as well as resources to the various target sectors. Resources include an online directory of IP professionals in Singapore (SNIPS) as well as an IP Starter providing basic IP management pointers for companies and case studies on IP-savvy companies. IP Consult sessions, one of the programmes under IPERC, consist of group dialogue and one-on-one individual sessions where your IP-related questions are answered by IP professionals. These monthly sessions have been well-received by the participants.

A spin-off from IPERC is iperckidz which is targeted at the students. iperckidz aims to provide IP facts to the students and teachers in the form of a one-stop online resource centre. Regular assembly talks are conducted in schools to provide basic, easy-to-understand information about IP to the children. In addition, a CD-Rom and video was developed to further disseminate information to the students in a fun and interactive way.

Intellectual Property Creation, Protection and Exploitation (IP-CEP)
IP-CEP is an umbrella programme designed for the businesses. It looks at how we can assist businesses in creating, exploiting and protecting their IP. Some of the tools we adopt are SurfIP (www.surfip.gov.sg) , a one-stop portal that allows IP search across multiple databases worldwide, and SCOPE IP (Strategies for Creation, Ownership, Protection and Exploitation of Intellectual Property), a diagnostic tool that helps companies assess their intellectual assets so as to gain maximum value from them.

Q: There has been a discernable decrease in the number of fake CDs and other goods being available on street corners. What role did IPOS play in
the clean up?

To combat piracy, the government agencies work closely together using a “3E approach” – Enforcement; Education and Engineering (which refers to the creation of an environment where public is exposed to genuine products readily).

In our educational efforts, we recognise that there are various groups of target audience within our population such as the business community, the students, IP professionals etc that have different needs and priorities and therefore respond differently to our messages. To attract their attention and garner their buy-in, we have to speak their language and customise our messages accordingly. As such, we have different programmes targeting at the different groups, with HIP designed for the general public, iperckidz for students and IPERC, SurfIP and SCOPE IP for the businesses, among others.

It is hoped that with these different educational programmes, we can raise the IP awareness levels across the nation, paving way for an IP-respecting and savvy generation.

Q: The new challenge is file-sharing over the Internet – from movies to the latest mp3s. Many young people still do not know it is wrong, or perhaps are impatient and think it is faster than taking the extra step to buy the originals. What is your advice to such young persons?

Our call to everyone is to respect IP and reject piracy. Illegal downloading of copyrighted music, or of any other copyrighted materials such as movies, is a breach of our copyright law. It is equivalent to stealing, as the copyright owner has not given permission for the download. The Internet and advancements in technology have made it easier for individuals to be able to cause considerable harm to copyright owners, their investments and creative efforts. It is therefore important that copyright laws prevent this. The intent of such laws is to target individuals who deliberately choose to infringe copyright laws for commercial gain, or to a significant extent, in terms of volume and value of the goods, as well as the impact of the infringement on the copyright owner. Users who occasionally download a few songs illegally for their own personal enjoyment are not the primary target of these laws, although they may still face civil action.

Q: How many employees does IPOS currently have? Are there any opportunities for NUS law students to apply for internships at IPOS? Are there career opportunities at IPOS after graduation from NUS Law School?

At present, we have about 140 employees in IPOS. We welcome NUS law students to apply for internships with us and there are definitely opportunities for NUS law graduates to take up legal positions with us when vacancies are available.

Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 2 (November/December 2006)