Reports

President’s Report on Activities of AIPPI Singapore

March 2002 to January 2003

This report covers the activities of AIPPI Singapore since the last AGM on 20 March 2002.

Activities

2002 has been an active year for AIPPI Singapore. I am setting out the Calendar of Events and will deal with each item separately.

* Calendar of Events

Date/Time Venue Event
3 April 2002 5.30pm American Club Quarterly Tea: Roundtable Discussion Topic: Q 167: Current standards for prior art disclosure in assessing novelty and inventive step requirements (Presenters: Jason Chan and Winnie Tham)
3 April 2002 5.30pm American Club Quarterly Tea: Roundtable Discussion Topic: Q 167: Current standards for prior art disclosure in assessing novelty and inventive step requirements (Presenters: Jason Chan and Winnie Tham)
6 May 2002 5.30pm American Club Quarterly Tea: Roundtable 1. Q 169: Criminal law sanctions with regard to the infringement of intellectual property rights
(Presenters: Sheena Jacob, Terry O’Connor and Jan de Visser)
2. PS Review 2002: The Review Of The Singapore Patents System in 2002”Invitation by IPOS for suggestions
15 May 2002 - Submission of suggestions of AIPPI Singapore to IPOS in response to their invitation re "PS Review 2002: The Review Of The Singapore Patents System in 2002"
29 May 2002 5.30pm American Club Quarterly Tea: Roundtable
Q 168: Use of a Mark 'as a Mark' as a legal requirement in respect of acquisition, maintenance and infringement of rights
(Presenters: Susanna Leong and Jan de Visser)
5 June 2002 IPOS Participated at the Roundtable discussion on “PS Review 2002: The Review Of The Singapore Patents System in 2002?
AIPPI Singapore was represented by:
1. Morris John
2. Ian Ng
3. Susanna Leong
7 June 2002 IPOS Participated at the follow up of the 5 June 2002 Roundtable discussion on "PS Review 2002: The Review Of The Singapore Patents System in 2002?
AIPPI Singapore was represented by:
1. Morris John
2. Ian Ng
17-21 June 2002 - ExCo Meeting in Lisbon AIPPI Singapore was represented by:
1. Regina Quek
2. Teresa O’Connor
3. Susanna Leong
Also represented AIPPI Singapore on Working Committee for Q168.
August 2002 - AIPPI Resolutions adopted at the ExCo Meeting in Lisbon (June 2002) sent to IPOS.
16 August 2002
9.30am to 5pm
Pan Pacific Hotel
AIPPI Symposium 2002 :“IP AS A BUILDING TOOL IN SINGAPORE AND ABROAD?
Last quarter 2002 - AIPPI Singapore website went live.
30 October 2002 5.30pm American Club Quarterly Tea: Roundtable
Discussion topic: Case study: Viacom International Inc. v. Elitist Technologies Co Ltd.
(Domain Name - "MTV?. (Presenters: Stanley Lai & Susanna Leong)
22 January 2003
10am
IPOS Participated in Dialogue Session between IPOS and IP Committee of Law Society and AIPPI Singapore.
AIPPI Singapore was represented by:
1. Teresa O’Connor
2. Audrey Yap
3. Francine Tan
4. Adrian Ee
5. Max Ng
6. Winnie Tham

March 2002 to January 2003

Quarterly Teas and Roundtables

AIPPI Singapore has continued with the Quarterly Teas and Roundtables for AIPPI Singapore members to come together.

4 were conducted in 2002: the details are:

Date Details
3 April 2002 Q 167: Current standards for prior art disclosure in assessing novelty and inventive step requirements
6 May 2002 Q 169: Criminal law sanctions with regard to the infringement of intellectual property rights
PS Review 2002 The Review Of The Singapore Patents System in 2002
29 May 2002 Q 168: Use of a Mark 'as a Mark' as a legal requirement in respect of acquisition, maintenance and infringement of rights
30 Oct 2002 Case study: Viacom International Inc. v. Elitist Technologies Co Ltd. (Domain Name - "MTV?

Q167, 168 and 169 were all Questions on which AIPPI Singapore had submitted a paper on to AIPPI International and these were the subject of debate and resolutions to be taken at the ExCo Meeting in June in Lisbon.

Attendance was at an average of about 15 people, peaking at about 30 people during the Roundtable on 6 May 2002 when the Review of the Singapore Patent System was also being discussed.

The feedback from these Roundtables has been positive, as the discussion is usually very lively and interesting and broad-based viewpoints were obtained.

March 2002 to January 2003

PS Review 2002: The Review Of The Singapore Patents System in 2002

We were invited by IPOS for feedback on various issues raised regarding the reform of the Singapore Patents Systems. The roundtables was held on 6 May 2002, with many interesting ideas raised, which went far beyond the original scope of the queries being raised by IPOS.

These were captured in the suggestions submitted by AIPPI Singapore to IPOS in response to their invitation re PS Review 2002: The Review Of The Singapore Patents System in 2002 on 15 May 2002.

Our members then participated in 2 rounds of roundtables with IPOS on 5th and 7th June 2002.

17-21 June 2002 ExCo Meeting in Lisbon

AIPPI Singapore was represented by:

1. Regina Quek

2. Teresa O’Connor

3. Susanna Leong

Also represented AIPPI Singapore on Working Committee for Q168.

At the ExCo meeting Q167, 168 and 169 were debated and Resolutions were taken by AIPPI. These were sent to IPOS in Aug 2002.

The Singapore Group has submitted a paper for each of these questions.

We were also invited to nominate a Singapore member to be a member of the Working Committee Q 168 – Use of a mark “as a mark” as a legal requirement in respect of acquisition, maintenance and infringement of rights.

Susanna Leong agreed to and did serve on the Committee.

AIPPI Symposium 2002: “IP AS A BUILDING TOOL IN SINGAPORE AND ABROAD?”

On 16 Aug 2002 AIPPI Singapore held its annual symposium at the Pan Pacific Hotel entitled “IP AS A BUILDING TOOL IN SINGAPORE AND ABROAD?

Attendance was about 60 persons, which was at the level projected by the organizing committee and profits were in excess of $3000.

We are planning to make this an annual event, and will be holding it again this year at about the same time, i.e. Aug 2003.

AIPPI Singapore website

Our AIPPI Singapore website at www.aippi.org.sg went live at the end of last year thanks to the work of Max Ng, Ian Ng and Kevin Theseira, particualy Max who has also agreed to do the updating work for the site.

Dialogue Session On TM Matters

I am also pleased to report that AIPPI Singapore was invited to and participated in the Dialogue Session On TM Matters with IPOS.

The other participant was the IP Committee of Law Society. AIPPI Singapore was represented by:

1. Teresa O’Connor

2. Audrey Yap

3. Francine Tan

4. Adrian Ee

5. Max Ng

6. Winnie Tham

The issues raised include:

1. Amendments to provide for e-filing of Forms TM 27, TM 22

2. Proposed Amendments to Fourth Schedule : Scale of Costs

3. Proposed Amendments to Consent Provisions : rules 29, 31 and 77

4. Deadline for filing Notice of Opposition

5. Post-Grant Opposition instead of pre-grant opposition

6. Publication of marks within 6 months of application

7. Recordal of Licenses to be made voluntary instead of mandatory

8. Notification by IPOS of advertisement of application

9. Grace Period for Renewals without Statutory Declaration

A Report has been prepared by the representatives who attended the Dialogue and is uploaded on our website at www.aippi.org.sg.

March 2002 to January 2003

Activities for 2003: Scientific Work

As part of the ongoing scientific work of AIPPI, a further 3 Questions on topical issues of IP law have been released and national group reports are in the process of being prepared:

Question Q173
Issues of co-existence of trademarks and domain names: public versus private international registration systems
(Presented by Stanley Lai, Max Ng, Hilda Lim and Regina Quek)
Question Q174 Jurisdiction and applicable law in the case of cross-border infringement (infringing acts) of intellectual property rights
(Presented by Sheena Jacob, Morris John with contributions from Jan de Visser)
Question Q175 The role of equivalents and prosecution history in defining the scope of patent protection: Introduction
(Presented by Jason Chan, Winnie Tham and contributions from Jan de Visser)

A series of Roundtables will be scheduled for 2003 on each of these topics. The first of the series commences on 11 Mar 2003 at the American Club and notices have been sent to all the members.

The topic will be Q175.

Symposium

We will also be organizing our symposium later this year, so look out for the notices. We look forward to maximum participation from all our members.

Membership

At the moment, membership stands at 13 corporate members and 39 individual members, totaling 52 members.

Optimal 2003

AIPPI International is supporting organization for Optimal 2003, which is organized by IPOS and JPO.
AIPPI International has therefore been allocated half a booth space as well as 2 seats at this Conference, which has been assigned to us by AIPPI International.
I shall come back on this once we have more details. I shall also be speaking at this event.

 


Regina Quek

President
AIPPI Singapore

 

Mar 2008 to Mar 2009 (abridged)

July 2008

13th AGM 2012

14th AGM 2013