Region: Singapore

The signs suggest that IP monetisation activity is on the rise in Southeast Asia, says A*STAR tech transfer chief

Talk about IP value creation opportunities in Asia, and inevitably for most of us the first thing that springs to mind is China. More often than not, the 10 countries and 625 million people lying to the south of the Middle Kingdom that make up the…

06 January 2017

Transpacific spins out services business; new firm will target strategic portfolio growth for Asian companies

After speculation surrounding its long-term future, Singapore-based patent firm Transpacific IP has divested its prosecution-focused Taiwan operation. The new outfit – FAITH Intellectual Assets – will be headed-up by Joseph Chang, who was previously…

14 October 2016

Transpacific denied Enfish lifeline as Taiwanese companies’ NPE experiment hangs in the balance

Back in May 2014, IAM reported on a lawsuit that had been filed the previous month in the Central District of California by a company named Kinglite Holdings. The suit accused Taiwanese IT and electronics company Micro-Star International (MSI) of…

19 July 2016

Patent reform in the US may drive us to use trade secrets more, says IP chief of top Asian R&D centre

The patent system in Europe is facing an uncertain future in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the European Union. But there is still plenty of evidence to suggest that the IP market’s centre of gravity is shifting further from the United…

05 July 2016

High Court has Yellow Pages’ number in copyright dispute over telephone directories

A recent High Court case has developed the law with respect to copyright protection for databases and the groundless threat counterclaim. It also illustrates how the 'creativity' approach should apply within the specific context of telephone directories, where there is no dichotomy between facts and expression.

29 June 2016

Appeal court rules on AMC v AMC

The Singapore Court of Appeal recently upheld claims of trademark infringement and passing off filed by Audience Motivation against AMC Live. The court also held that AMC Live would not be entitled to the own-name defence with respect to the infringement claim.

15 June 2016

Applying visual similarity principles to marks with dominant textual components

In a recent decision the hearing officer dismissed on all grounds an opposition filed by independent pet food company Pets Global Pte Ltd against a mark owned by specialist pet products supplier B2K Pet Products Pte Ltd. She found that the marks were not similar since they were not visually, aurally or conceptually similar.

08 June 2016