Last year the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) was ranked as the world’s most innovative IP office, an achievement due in large part to the efforts of former chief executive Daren Tang to transform the organisation from an administering registry to an innovation agency. Tang departed in 2020 to become the new director general of WIPO, one of the most high-profile jobs in intellectual property. Under his successor, career Singapore government official Rena Lee, IPOS continues to push boundaries. It recently announced what it claims will be the world’s fastest patent grant process, cutting pendency for new rights to just six months. This fast lane is open to applications that are first filed in Singapore and contain 20 or fewer claims – although for now the office only has the capacity to grant five of these fast-track requests per month and applicants are limited to 10 requests per year. The initiative follows previous trials that focused on specific technology areas such as AI, although the new scheme applies to any technology.

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