So, your company has reached a milestone. Sales are good and you are finding the local market a little saturated. You have a good product and you are eager to grow your business further. Perhaps it’s time to start looking overseas? The natural way to expand internationally in the past might be to set up an overseas office. In this present day and age however, this really is just one of many strategic choices available to you. Regardless of your choice, you need to know that action needs to be taken regarding your intangible assets.

Nine days before the World Health Organization officially notified the public of a flu-like outbreak in China, a small Canadian artificial intelligence startup warned its clients of a potential outbreak near a market in Wuhan, China. On December 31st, the startup, BlueDot, using machine learning and natural-language processing to scour through foreign-language news reports and medical bulletins in a multitude of languages, alerted public health officials of the outbreak and determined the countries that were most at risk based on airline ticket data.

With all the “work from home” going on, we’ve all likely been watching more film and TV than usual. For me, one of the more interesting releases this year is Enola Holmes on Netflix. This is perhaps in part because it’s a UK production (I’m originally from the UK and it’s nice to see big-name films being produced there), but it could also be because of a related complaint filed in the District Court of New Mexico alleging that the film infringes copyright in the original Arthur Conan Doyle novels.

How does a company thrive during a pandemic? Look around and you may notice businesses that have been able to achieve success and scale despite the global economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. From our observation, these companies have some common traits.  One key aspect is how they are able to make use of their intellectual property (IP) and intangible asset (IA) portfolio to capture new business opportunities.  

There is a common perception that intellectual property (IP) laws only serve multinational conglomerates with product functions that require patenting, or pop superstars with content that requires copyright protection. But IP is relevant to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) too—it could even be the key to their survival.

We were there at the birth of IPOS International. Like an expectant – pun intended – parent awaiting and planning for the birth of their child. However, nothing could prepare us for the actual whirlwind of activities this new beginning would entail!

In environments where budgets are finite, creating a resilient, quantifiable methodology for making strategic filing decisions is key. While companies with deep pockets can afford to file numerous marks without having to choose between occupying the market or testing the strength of the contemplated sign, for those with a more modest budget, the cost of creating, maintaining and defending a trademark portfolio can quickly add up, leading to a poor return on investment (ROI), if not planned and managed carefully.

On 3 August 2020, the Intellectual Property Students’ Association (“IPSA”) had the privilege of interacting with Dr Ming Tan, Managing Director of IPOS International. IPOS International is the enterprise and engagement arm of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (“IPOS”), which partners enterprises to create tangible value from their intangible assets. In this insightful and interactive sharing session, Dr Tan responded openly to the many questions posed by student representatives from IPSA on a range of topics, discussing the role of IPOS International, changes in the current challenging business climate, and issues related to intellectual property (“IP”) and intangible assets (“IA”).

Intangible assets are a major driver of corporate value and growth, but they are often not fully recognized on financial statements. This is a problematic gap which can be addressed by making IA disclosures on company financial reports.

If you are not an IP professional, trade mark applications can be a bit of a mystery. This guide is intended to be a short, simple, and practical walkthrough of the things you may need to think about when registering your trade mark in Singapore. Why bother? In short, registering a trade mark gives you a clear, unambiguous right to use that trade mark, and to prevent other people from using it without your consent. It also allows you to use the ® symbol.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a race in the biomedical industry to find effective COVID-19 treatments. Repurposed drugs where pre-existing drugs are used for new therapeutic uses like COVID-19 treatment is the current strategy of choice as these drugs provide significant reduction in development time and costs. While enterprises dealing in repurposed drugs will experience great growth opportunities to meet the needs and demands of new customers and markets, they also face challenges of patent protection in having to prove the effectiveness of the new uses and fulfil the other patent requirements.

For the last few years, it’s been a common refrain that the pace of change has been accelerating. Then along comes something like Covid-19 and reminds us that there’s “change” and then there’s “CHANGE”. What we are facing now is REAL change. Change that will have long-lasting and deep implications for us all. If we look specifically at the world we inhabit – business – the changes will be huge. Business models will be made and broken. Some companies will thrive, many will survive, and an unfortunate number will fail. The ability to respond to this change is going to be a key factor in determining which group you end up in. As the quote attributed to Darwin goes: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

Many of us are familiar with Razer Inc. (“Razer”) as one of the top global gaming hardware companies. During this COVID-19 crisis, Razer moved out of the gaming space to help Singapore and South East Asia combat the virus by manufacturing and distributing surgical masks. This is, without a doubt, an excellent display of corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) by a local company for its home country. However, as a business, did Razer benefit from its CSR activities? And how was it able to pivot into mask manufacturing? Let us examine this from the perspective of intangible assets.

Data, as an intangible asset, can be harnessed to help enterprises not only make sense of these uncertain times but open up new possibilities to overcome the challenges it brings. IP Strategist - Alrik Tan offers his perspective on how data surrounding the COVID-19 situation can be interpreted in a variety of ways to assess its true impact upon businesses: Patent Examiner - Terence Tan also sheds light on how the world is working at unprecedented speed to discover a solution, and how businesses are pivoting to support this cause by leveraging their IA and IP.

Dr. Spencer Yu, Senior Director, Head of Intellectual Asset Office of AUO shares his views on successful commercialisation collaborations, intellectual property (IP) challenges and the US-China trade war's impact on IP.

If you are running a tech business, which intangible asset is the most important, your technology, brand, data, or network of business relationships? In the first instance, one might immediately perceive the technology to be of greatest importance, since it is the most basic aspect which the business is built upon.

Adapt. Transform. Innovate. Digitalise. SMEs must __________ to be competitive in our new economy. Fill in the blank with any of the words above and you get a headline that is too often seen in the news.

Hear from our IP Strategist Fu Zhikang on how water startups can leverage their intangible assets (IA) and intellectual property (IP) to succeed in collaboration and licensing negotiations, and drive business growth and expansion.

Understanding data well opens new business opportunities. IP Strategist Alrik Tan illustrates how companies like WeChat and Nintendo uses data to push boundaries and grow new markets.

How does IP work in the virtual world? IP Strategist Mark Cheng talks about the use of IP in virtual reality (VR) and the potential opportunities and pitfalls.

How do you protect your brand effectively as part of your business growth strategy? IP Strategist Ye Thu Aung shares on the different ways to protect your brand through the use of trade marks.

Why should startups be concerned about their intangible assets against all other competing priorities? IP Strategist Fu Zhikang discusses the importance of identifying and managing intangible assets as a startup.

How do you place a value on intangible resources within your company? Head of Enterprise Engagement Ong Pei Wen shares on the value and impact of intangible assets on businesses today and the potential opportunities and risks associated with IP.

How do you protect your most valuable resource and fight copycats who infringe your IP? IP Strategist Ye Thu Aung highlights the different considerations for business owners when making strategic decisions around IP protection or enforcement.