Patent Law in Regard to Computer Programs in Singapore
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Brief Intro To Patent Law in Singapore
Singapore's Law on patents is governed by the Patents Act 1995(Cap.221) and The Patents Rules (in effect since 23rd February 1995). On February 23 1995, Singapore joined the following major intellectual property conventions and treaties, namely, the Paris Convention, the Budapest Treaty and the Patent Co-operation Treaty (which is a multilateral treaty for the coordination and cooperation of filing, searching and examination of patent application) for a centralised system of filing patents applications.
Singapore is not a member of the Berne and Rome Conventions but it's copyright laws largely comply with their substantive provisions.
The Patent Co-operation treaty does not grant patents as that is the responsibility of the national patent offices of individual countries. It is instead an international patent filing system. It eliminates the effort involved in seeking patents in a large number of countries.
What occurs is that the international patent application is sent to an International Searching Authority, which then searches prior art and writes a search report. A United Nations agency known as the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organisation will then send all the relevant documents to the patent offices where intended which will then either grant it or dismiss it.
There are 2 ways as to how a patent may be seeked in Singapore...