Opening Address by Ministry of Law Permanent Secretary, Dr Beh Swan Gin, at the Intellectual Property Management Community of Practice Forum 2014

21 APR 2014

21 Apr 2014 Posted in Speeches

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

  1. A very good afternoon to all of you.

    Importance of IP and IP Management

  2. All of us here are part of the community that play a role in IP management within the public sector. There is certainly no shortage of IP creation in the public sector that improves the everyday lives of our citizens. For instance, the National Library Board is the first library in the world to deploy radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology for borrowing and returning books, and patented its Electronic Library Management System. The sheltered walkways at public housing estates also incorporate a patented invention by the Housing and Development Board. Specifically, the roof section and supporting pillars of the sheltered walkways are designed to structurally deform upon impact from a falling object, to reduce the chances of the object rebounding, and thereby protecting the public from getting hurt. These are just some examples of IP assets created by public agencies.

  3. To better understand the IP challenges encountered by public agencies, IPOS conducted a survey in 2012. About 70 agencies shared that they possessed core IP, ranging from Trademarks and Patents, to Copyright in publications, software and databases. The survey found common IP challenges that cut across many different areas of work such as risk management, procurement, major infrastructure projects, HR contracts and of course, in R&D.

    IP Management for Public Agencies Programme

  4. To improve IP management capabilities, IPOS, with the support from the Ministry of Finance, introduced the IP Management (IPM) for Public Agencies Programme. From FY 2010 to FY 2012, the IPOS team assisted close to 30 public agencies on various IP matters, such as developing their IP policy and guidelines, reviewing IP clauses, doing IP stock-takes, providing IPM advisory services, as well as training their officers on IP. Later this afternoon, you will hear the IPOS team share about their experience in assisting the public agencies.

  5. At last year’s forum, I shared that IPOS will be channelling their energy and resources towards initiatives at the Whole-of-Government level. The intent is for the private sector to take the lead in offering IP management consultancy and advisory services at the individual agency level.

  6. A big focus for IPOS is capability building through training and education, As a result, IPOS has been collaborating with IP Academy to co-develop and roll out customised IPM trainings with a number of agencies.

  7. For example, IPOS has been working with MOF to develop Procurement IPM modules and a Tool Kit for Procurement officers. They have also developed a set of Basic IPM modules and conducted two very successful trial runs earlier this year. The actual IPM training course is likely to be rolled out later this year, starting with 2 runs per month.

  8. The IPM training course is being developed in a modular manner so as to permit customisation to the needs of individual agencies. On this note, I would like to invite agencies to approach the IPOS team so that the training course can be made directly relevant for your officers.

  9. Later on during the forum, you will hear about key aspects of the training modules and toolkits that have been developed. It is essential to raise the level of awareness and knowledge in IPM, especially in managing risks of IP infringement and securing the necessary rights to carry out your activities both for the near term and the future.

    IPM CoP Initiative

  10. Let me also say a word about the IPM Community of Practice (COP). Since its launch in January 2011, it has grown to an active community of about 400 IP management practitioners from across 67 public agencies. This platform allows officers from different public agencies to learn and share experiences with each other.

  11. Many private sector organisations have contributed to the success of the IPM CoP initiative. I would like to thank them and encourage the organisations to continue working with the IPOS team, for example, to co-develop and roll out training programmes.

    Conclusion

  12. Before I conclude, I would like to thank our distinguished speakers and panellists, Mr Lam Chung Nian and Mr Alban Kang for taking time to share with us an overview of the different modules that have been developed for public agencies.

  13. I wish all of you a productive and insightful forum. Thank you.

Last updated on 21 Apr 2014