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.