Weekly Design Update – Oct 2021 (1 of 3)

Hi all!

We have now included all official fees for Germany as part of our IP Services offering.  If you would be interested in having these official fees imported into your system as part of our Equinox Official Fee Management Service, please send an email across to ip-services@workanyware.co.uk and we will be in touch!

Our current monitored jurisdictions are the United Kingdom, European Union, EPO, WIPO, Benelux, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg and the United States of America.

All of our monitored official fees can be viewed under the ‘Official Fees’ tab of the IP Portal!

“The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) has tabled the Copyright Bill for First Reading in Parliament today.

1. The Copyright Bill (“the Bill”) seeks to repeal and replace the current Copyright Act. It will strengthen the copyright regime in Singapore, by updating the Copyright Act to stay abreast of changes in how content is created, distributed, and used. It will also make the law more accessible by simplifying the language.

Key Features of the Bill

The key features of the Bill are:

a. It will introduce new rights and remedies for creators, to ensure copyright continues to reward the creation of works and incentivise creativity. For example:

• A new right to be identified will require users to ensure that when materials are used in public, including when they are distributed on online, the creator or performer is acknowledged. This will help individual creators and performers build their reputation.
• Creators of photographs, portraits, engravings, sound recordings and films, whether commissioned or otherwise, will by default be the first owner of copyright unless otherwise prescribed by contract. This changes the current position, where the commissioning party owns the copyright by default. Creators will be better positioned to negotiate with the commissioning parties, and can further showcase and commercialise their works for other purposes.
• Copyright works, if lawfully accessed (e.g. without circumventing paywalls), can be used for computational data analysis, such as sentiment analysis, text and data mining, or training machine learning, without having to seek the permission of each copyright owner. This will support research and innovation efforts.
• Teachers and students may use freely available internet materials in their educational activities, including for home-based learning, as long as they acknowledge the source. However, if they are made aware that the source is infringing, they must stop using it. This new exception is timely, since the use of online materials for educational purposes has increased substantially.

1. The Bill will restructure and reword the legislation in plain English, to enhance its clarity and accessibility. The Bill adopts a more intuitive, thematic structure and provides illustrations to show how provisions should be applied in particular situations. This will allow creators, users, and intermediaries to better understand how the law works to both protect and provide access to works.
2. MinLaw and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) would like to thank all respondents who provided feedback during the several rounds of public consultations culminating in a draft version of the Bill being issued for final consultation in February this year. Responses from the February consultation were taken into consideration in finalising the Bill. MinLaw’s full response to the February consultation can be accessed at https://www.go.gov.sg/copyright-consult-response.
3. If passed, we expect to be able to operationalise most of the provisions in the Bill in November 2021.”

“The SME Fund, the EUIPO’s initiative that grants financial aid for intellectual property (IP) matters, will be also open throughout October.

So far, in 2021, the EUIPO has supported more than 8 000 SMEs from all over the EU. The sixth application window was launched on 1 and open until 31 October 2021. More than 16 000 trade marks and 4 400 designs have been requested at national, regional and EU level. Applications for IP pre-diagnostic services (IP Scan) are also on the rise, with 487 requests to date.

The Fund is open to small business as well as IP lawyers and representatives who can apply and can carry out the full procedure on behalf of their clients.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can save up to EUR 1 500 in trade mark and design basic application fees and IP pre-diagnostic services.

More on the SME Fund

The Ideas Powered for business SME Fund is a €20 million grant scheme helping European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access their intellectual property rights.

A European Commission initiative, the SME Fund is implemented by the EUIPO and the national and regional IP offices of the EU to support businesses in developing their IP strategies and protecting their IP rights, at national, regional or EU level.

Apply now“