A new representative office of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, or IPOS, in the Pearl River Delta will help link more Singaporean IP service providers with the growing number of Chinese innovation companies, especially those in the technology sector, according to industry insiders.

"As more companies from the Delta bring their innovations to the world, IPOS' first representative office in China will help them link with Singaporean IP service providers, to help them protect and manage their innovations in Southeast Asia and beyond," said Ong Ye Kung, Singapore's acting minister for education and senior minister of state for the Ministry of Defense.

IPOS, a statutory board under the Ministry of Law of Singapore, announced in late May plans to establish its first overseas representative office in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, Guangdong province.

"The knowledge city is an important flagship project that aims to become an innovation zone and catalyst for the economic transformation of Guangdong, a testing ground for China's process of reform and opening-up since the 1980s," said Ong, who is also the co-chairman of the Singapore-Guangdong Collaboration Council.

The representative office is currently undergoing approval procedures administered by the authorities in both China and Singapore, according to Ng Kok Siong, chief executive officer of the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City Investment and Development Co Ltd.

Ng said that the office will become an important platform for the protection of international intellectual properties.

"Chinese companies will be able to enter overseas markets, and especially those in Southeast Asia, much more rapidly if their intellectual properties and copyrights are registered in Singapore," said Ng.

He added that China's burgeoning IP-intensive economy, fueled by the country's incentive-driven policies in innovation and technology, will benefit Singaporean intellectual property service providers.

According to a report by the State Intellectual Property Office of China, more than 1.1 million patent applications were recorded in China last year, an 18 percent year-on-year growth rate from a year earlier.

"In addition, the representative office will work to make it easier for foreign companies to enter the Chinese market through a range of service provisions, including the protection of overseas intellectual properties," said Ng.

Lin Guanghai, deputy chief judge of Guangzhou Intellectual Property Court, said the representative office will ensure that bilateral intellectual property cooperation between Singapore and China is deepened.

"It will contribute to the development of a joint IP demonstration zone, increase bilateral exchanges and attract IP service providers to locate in the Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City," said Lin.

qiuquanlin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/10/2016 page12)