Licence of Right (LOR)

If you are interested in obtaining a licence to someone's patent but do not know where to start, you may start by looking at our Patents Register for patents that are endorsed with a licence of right entry. To facilitate the search process, IPOS has consolidated a list of Singapore patents with such endorsements. Patents endorsed with a licence of right entry means that the patent owner is willing to grant a licence to work the invention in the patent to an interested party. This licence will be on terms agreed between the parties. If you are a patent owner and are interested to licence-out, such an endorsement may help you attract licensees. In addition by doing so, your patent renewal fees would also be halved.

Issue	Points to Consider
What is LOR?	After a patent has been granted, the patent owner can inform the Registrar to enter in the register that licences under his patent is available as of right. That means that the patent owner cannot refuse to licence the invention.

What benefits are there for doing so?	By making licences to his patent available as of right, the patent owner enjoys a reduction of his renewal fees by half the amount. The purpose of this provision is to encourage patent owners to come forward and make known their intentions to licence-out.

Terms of the LOR	The terms of LOR are to be negotiated between the patent owner and the licensee. If the parties cannot agree on the terms, the Registrar may be asked to settle the terms of the LOR for them.

How would a patent owner inform the Registrar that he wants his patent to be endorsed as LOR in the Patents Register?	To apply for a LOR entry to be made on the Patents Register, the appropriate form with fee should be lodged. Please refer to Patents Form 28 and its corresponding fee in this schedule. It is only when the Registrar of Patents is satisfied that the patent owner is not precluded by contract from granting licences under the patent, shall the LOR entry be made.

Can the patent owner apply to cancel the LOR after it has been entered in the Patents Register?	To cancel a LOR entry that is on the Patents Register, the appropriate form with fee should be lodged. Please refer to Patents Form 30 and its corresponding fee in this schedule. When an application for cancellation is made and the balance paid of all renewal fees which would have been payable if the entry had not been made, the Registrar of Patents may cancel the entry if satisfied that there is no existing licence under the patent or that all licensees under the patent consent to the application.

The LOR list	The LOR list contains details of all live granted patents with a LOR status extracted from the Patents Register. However as the LOR status of a patent can change (e.g. if a LOR endorsement is cancelled), you should check the Patents Register before relying on the information in this list.

Download LOR list (sorted by IPC)

Download LOR list (sorted by proprietor)

An example of a LOR entry
This is an example of what you can see in the LOR list.

FIELD OF INVENTION	INTERNATIONAL PATENT CLASSIFICATION^#	PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER^	PATENT NUMBER	TITLE OF INVENTION	PROPRIETOR
BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS	H01R 4/36*	2000039446	101422	SCREW TERMINAL	MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC WORKS, LTD.

*Understanding the IPC
Below is a detailed breakdown of the classification “H01R 4/36”.

Section	H	ELECTRICITY
Class	H01	BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
Subclass	H01R	ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
Main Group	H01R 4/00	Electrically-conductive connections between two or more conductive members in direct contact, i.e. touching one another; Means for effecting or maintaining such contact; Electrically-conductive connections having two or more spaced connecting locations for conductors and using contact members penetrating insulation
Subgroup	4/36	Conductive members located under tip of screw

#IPC is an international classification of patent documents. For details of the IPC, please click here.

^ Click on this number for basic details of this patent. The patent specification and abstract can be accessed by conducting a search using this number at ‘Patent Search’ at top of page or via www.epatents.gov.sg