Singapore Intellectual Property Blog

This annex sets out details of the official fee increases announced by IPOS in July 2025.

It should be read in conjunction with the blog post “IPOS Official Fee Increases (Patents) 2025”.

Given the complexity of the excess claims fees rules for Singapore patent applications, you might be asking yourself “How do I determine if an excess claims fee is payable on a patent application?” “What is the excess claims fee for a patent application when responding to a Written Opinion” and “What is the excess claims fee for a patent application on grant?”.

We set out a number of rules which may be used to calculate whether or not excess claims fees are payable when requesting examination or combined search and examination, when responding to a Written Opinion (where applicable) and when paying the grant fee.

I was invited to give a talk recently on patentable subject matter and exclusions from patentability in Singapore.

The talk was presented at a webinar on 8 April 2024, hosted jointly by the Association of Singapore Patent Attorneys (ASPA), CNCPI - Compagnie Nationale des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle (French IP Attorney Association) and the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA).

This blog post sets out a transcript of the talk.

I was invited to give a talk recently on patent term extensions in South East Asia.

The talk was presented at a webinar on 2 September 2024, hosted by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys in the United Kingdom.

This blog post sets out a transcript of the talk.

Under Singapore Patent Law, the deadline for requesting examination of an application is 36 months from the earliest claimed priority date. If no priority has been claimed in the patent application, the examination deadline is 36 months from the date of filing of the patent application.

The Singapore Patents Act and Singapore Patents Rules contain provisions which allow for the deadline for requesting examination to be deferred. These are set out under Rule 108(4) of the Patents Rules.

Under Singapore patent law, an applicant may file a late request for examination of their patent application, up to 18 months from that deadline.

Such extensions are requested retrospectively and are granted as of right. The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore IPOS charges an official fee per month of the extension (see below for details of a pilot programme allowing extensions of time without charge).

An important point is that the request for extension of time must be made before the expiry of the 18 month period.