Speech by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee at "Global Franchising and Licensing 2003" at Suntec Singapore Concourse, Level 3
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Mr. Dhirendra Shantilal
Chairman, Franchising and Licensing Association (Singapore)
Mr Stephen Tan
Chief Executive, Singapore Exhibition Services Pte Ltd
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
A very good morning to everyone.
I am always happy to be at an event that promotes a creative and entrepreneurial spirit in Singaporeans. FLA and SES have done an excellent job in promoting franchising and licensing activities. Today's Global Franchising and Licensing Conference and Exhibition brings together wonderful ideas, business products and proven brands, local and foreign. This is the place where the business mind will be prompted to ask: How do I take my business to the next level? How can I bring these products to new markets? Is there a new business opportunity here?
We all know that market competition will only become keener. Businesses must find new ways and models to establish themselves in new markets. How do you overcome the challenges of entering these new markets, especially when you are not familiar with the market, and do not have the resources to establish a large presence there? A franchising and licensing programme is one way of providing businesses greater exposure to consumers, and extending your brand staying power across sectors. It can be a very effective means to make the most out of your intellectual property.
Well, let me illustrate with an example. Star Wars and its sequels are wonderful movies of galactic proportions. I am sure most of us have seen the movies, particularly the children. But in between movie releases, the popularity of the Star Wars franchise would drop. When Lucasfilm took a good look at their business strategy, and decided to focus the Forces of Star Wars onto consumer products, the result was to entrench Star Wars into popular American culture. If you watched a movie and really liked it, would you not want to read more about the characters, explore the worlds they live in and even join them in their adventures? At the Star Wars website, you can buy video games, join a collectors' group, bid for Star Wars posters, toys, and models. There is even a Star Wars ride in Disneyland! Anyone whose child has asked for a light sabre will understand the power of the Star Wars franchise which has elevated Star Wars from a movie, to its prominent global status today. Now, what did this mean for Lucasfilm? All in all, I understand that the Star Wars franchise has made about US$7 billion since the first movie in 1977!
It is important not just to have a good business idea, but also to be able to leverage on different business strategies to grow that idea. Singapore firms are actively doing that. They have cleverly used franchising and licensing mechanisms to develop their businesses both in Singapore and abroad. I am happy to see so many Singapore firms represented at this GFL Conference. Today, when you are overseas, you are increasingly likely to spot home-grown brands, like Osim healthcare and lifestyle products, Informatics' IT education services and Singapore Sakae Sushi restaurants. The GFL is a timely event for businessmen to meet and share ideas, and so that they can leverage on their Intellectual Property even more aggressively.
In Singapore, we are committed to working with IP creators and users to provide an excellent environment for businesses to leverage on their intellectual property. If you have a germ of an idea, how do you develop it into a marketable product? How do you ensure that the intellectual input is properly protected? If you need to engage professional help, where can you find them? Are you confident that the laws are robust? That enforcement agencies are vigilant? In Singapore, we work very hard to ensure that businessmen are assured that all these things are in place. We want companies to know that this is an attractive place to engage in IP creation, protection, commercialisation and management. Events like this contribute to the buzz, and are the lubricants for bringing businessmen together, to explore new opportunities, and to push the frontiers.
From the public sector perspective, IPOS has been carrying out many initiatives to raise public awareness and knowledge of IP issues. But knowing what IP is, is but the first step. Our businessmen have to gain the skills to manage and exploit their IP and become more IP-savvy. This is because the world is also fast becoming IP-savvy. We must all learn how to play the game. How do we evaluate the IP that we have, protect it, and market it successfully? To assist in this, many Government agencies, like IPOS, SPRING Singapore, IE Singapore and EDB, are putting in place schemes to help our companies identify, protect and exploit their IP.
As technology progresses, IP laws will naturally have to adapt themselves. Indeed, IP law is one of the most rapidly changing fields of law. Here in Singapore, we constantly stay in touch with the latest developments, both local and overseas. We also work closely with organisations such as the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and our partners in ASEAN and APEC to increase Singapore's IP network capabilities.
This is a very exciting time for us because we are conducting a comprehensive review of our IP laws, to ensure that they are up-to-date. Many discussions have already taken place in the past two years, when we were negotiating the IP Chapter of the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA). The USSFTA marks a positive step towards pitching Singapore's national IP regime to amongst the best in the world. The intent is to ensure that companies will have more incentive to create more IP in Singapore and find fertile ground to exercise their creativity and entrepreneurship. This review of our IP laws will go on for another year. Hence, I encourage all of you to give your feedback to IPOS.
One of the things we have been looking at, is the role of Government in creating and exploiting IP. After all, Government itself must also continue to build up our IP-savviness to learn about the unique characteristics of IP, and how to treat it in an increasingly sophisticated manner. As the Government is one of the biggest investors in technology spending in Singapore, it actively contributes to the IP creation process, such as through developing new products and systems that serve public sector purposes.
At the same time, we recognise that this creation process leads to the creation of IP, some of which may have commercial potential. In many instances, businesses have partnered with Government to create this IP, by taking part in the Government procurement process. Over the next few months, we will be putting in place a framework to give greater support to businesses in optimising the value of IP developed through Government projects. This will be implemented for IT contracts by January next year, and will be extended to other areas later as more details are worked out. Where there are no security or public interest issues, Government agencies are now strongly encouraged to allow for the private party to own the IP developed though government contracts. The Government will still retain rights to fulfil its own operating needs, but it will free up the IP created, so that the best parties can exploit and build on the IP, to create new products and services for other markets.
Indeed, we already have some successful examples of how further value can be created out of IP that was originally developed for specific Government purposes. One of our local IT software houses, SQLView (pronounced "SEE-KOHL-VIEW"), delivers knowledge management and e-record management solutions. It originally won a Government contract to develop an electronic registry system in 1997. This is a system that helps the organisation to preserve all its electronic communication like emails. If you think about it, this is a concept that can be extended to other non-government organisations as well, since more and more companies today rely on electronic means of communications. With the agreement of the Government, SQLView was able to build upon this IP to develop KRIS, standing for a "Knowledge Repository of Information Systems." To date, they have garnered about S$1.2m in sales of the software system in the commercial sector.
Now, we hope that with this new framework in place, we will see more and more of such cases, where the private sector is able to bring the IP and exploit it in other sectors to create more growth opportunities. This will result in a win-win situation and contribute to Singapore as a dynamic IP hub where our businesses can fully leverage on their creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
Moving forward, I believe that businesses will seek even more innovative ways to expand and capture the full value of their IP. Your presence here today is a clear signal that this message is increasingly beginning to be heard. And it is those that seize the opportunities, leverage on their intellectual assets and learn the rules of the game in the international playing field who will reap the maximum benefits.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a very successful time at today's exhibition and conference.
Thank you. |
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