Circular: IPOS Digital Hub Launch on 2 June 2022

(A) Gazette of Legislative Amendments and Fee Updates

The Intellectual Property (Amendment) Act 2022, and amendments to the various IP subsidiary legislation to effect process changes and fee updates will be implemented on 26 May 2022. The legislative amendments are accessible to the public through Singapore Statutes Online from 23 May 2022.

(B) Electronic Online System (“EOS”) and Alternative Filing Modes

To support the transition to IPOS Digital Hub, IPOS has issued a Practice Direction to specify the updated practice to be adopted when using the Electronic Online System (“EOS”) and alternative filing modes provided by IPOS.

The IPOS Digital Hub Practice Direction (No. 1 of 2022) [PDF, 729 KB] will take effect on 26 May 2022.

(C) Excluded Days

To facilitate users’ smooth transition to IPOS Digital Hub, the Registrar has issued Registries Practice Direction (No. 2 of 2022) [PDF, 106 KB] to specify 26 to 27 May 2022 and 30 May 2022 to 3 June 2022 as excluded days (“Excluded Days”).

This means that the period from 26 May 2022 to 5 June 2022 (both dates inclusive), taking into account Saturdays and Sundays falling within that period¹, will be a period of excluded days.

Please refer to the Annex of this circular for more details. The Annex of this circular shall supersede the Annex appended to Trade Marks Circular No. 5/2022, Registered Designs Circular No. 4/2022, Patents Circular No. 4/2022, Plant Varieties Protection Circular No. 3/2022 and Geographical Indications Circular No. 3/2022 issued on 28 April 2022.

(D) Decommissioning of IP²SG and Drafts in IP²SG

IPOS’ existing e-services platform, IP²SG, will decommission on 25 May 2022 (2359 hrs) and be replaced by IPOS Digital Hub as the EOS from 2 June 2022 (1200 hrs).

Please note that all draft correspondence and forms in your IP²SG draft folders and payment cart will be removed on 25 May 2022 (2359 hrs) and they will not be retrievable in the EOS. Please submit your drafts and make payment (as appropriate) via IP²SG before 25 May 2022 (2359 hrs).

EOS services and IPOS Go mobile app will be unavailable from 26 May 2022 (0000 hrs) to 2 June 2022 (1159 hrs). A calendar of the key events relating to the decommissioning of IP²SG and transition to IPOS Digital Hub is as illustrated below.

Please refer to the abovementioned IPOS Digital Hub Practice Direction (No. 1 of 2022) and Registries Practice Direction (No. 2 of 2022) for more information on the alternative filing modes and excluded days, respectively.

(E) Revised Effective Date of Fees for Applications through the Madrid Protocol

In line with the revised date of implementation of legislative amendments and fee updates, the revised fees for the following applications through the Madrid Protocol originally slated for implementation on 8 May 2022 will also be effective on 26 May 2022 instead:

i. Application to register an international registration/subsequent designation of trade mark, collective mark or certification mark designating Singapore through the Madrid Protocol

ii. Application for renewal of an international registration/subsequent designation of trade mark, collective mark or certification mark designating Singapore through the Madrid Protocol

(F) Change in Trade Marks Journal Publication Date

Please note that there will be no publication of the Trade Marks Journal in the week of 30 May 2022.

From the week of 6 June 2022 onwards, Trade Marks Journal publication will resume publication on Fridays.

If you have any enquiries on this Circular, please send an email to ipos_enquiry@ipos.gov.sg.

¹ Practice Direction No. 1 of 2009 [PDF, 12 KB] and Practice Direction No. 1 of 2019 [PDF, 69 KB] (on hours of business and excluded days) specify that i) all Saturdays shall be excluded days for any business under the Patents Act 1994 and Rules, the Trade Marks Act 1998 and Rules, the Registered Designs Act 2000 and Rules, the Plant Varieties Protection Act 2004 and Rules, the Geographical Indications Act 2014 and Rules 2019, where the time for doing the business expires on that date and where the business was not done on that date, and ii) all Sundays and public holidays shall be excluded days for all purposes under the Patents, Trade Marks, Registered Designs, Plant Varieties Protection and Geographical Indications Acts and their respective Rules.