Cooperation Programmes for Accelerating Search and Examination Process for
Patent Applications in Singapore
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has bilateral / multilateral arrangements
with foreign patent offices for accelerating the search and examination process of a Singapore
patent application. These arrangements are the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH)
Pilot Programme, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Programme and the ASEAN
Patent Examination Co-operation (ASPEC) Programme.
Under these programmes, participating patent offices are able to share the search and/or
examination results. The objectives of these programmes are to reduce work by making
reference to the search and/or examination results done earlier at another participating patent
office. This could generally lead to a faster prosecution of the patent application. In addition,
such programmes could lead to better search and examination, as a patent office could have
access to databases which were previously unavailable (for example, specific technical
databases, local databases and databases in other languages).
Further information on these bilateral / multilateral arrangements will be provided in the
following sections.