Registered Designs Act 2000

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“application for registration”, in relation to a design, means an application under section 11 for the registration of the design;

“article” means any thing that is manufactured (whether by an industrial process, by hand or otherwise), and includes —

“artistic work” has the meaning given by section 20(1) of the Copyright Act 2021;

“Convention country” means a country or territory, other than Singapore, which is a party to the Paris Convention or a member of the World Trade Organisation;

“corresponding design”, in relation to an artistic work, means a design which, when applied to an article or a non‑physical product, results in a reproduction of that work;

“Court” means the General Division of the High Court;

“design” means features of shape, configuration, colours, pattern or ornament applied to any article or non‑physical product that give that article or non‑physical product its appearance, but does not include —

“designer”, in relation to a design, means the person who creates it or, if there are 2 or more such persons, each of those persons;

“exclusive licence” means a licence from the registered owner of a registered design authorising the licensee, or the licensee and persons authorised by the licensee, to the exclusion of all other persons (including the registered owner), to use the design in the manner authorised by the licence and “exclusive licensee” is to be construed accordingly;

“formal requirements” means —

“International Bureau” means the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organisation;

“non‑physical product” —

“Office” means the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore incorporated under the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore Act 2001;

“owner” has the meaning given by section 4;

“Paris Convention” means the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property signed at Paris on 20 March 1883, as revised or amended from time to time;

“Register” means the Register of Designs maintained under section 53;

“registered design” means a design registered under this Act;

“registered owner”, in relation to a registered design, means the person whose name is for the time being entered in the Register as the owner of the design or, if there are 2 or more such persons, each of those persons;

“Registrar” means the Registrar of Designs referred to in section 49 and includes any Deputy Registrar of Designs referred to in that section;

“Registry” means the Registry of Designs established under section 51;

“set of articles” means 2 or more articles of the same general character that are ordinarily on sale together or intended to be used together, and to each of which the same design, or the same design with modifications or variations not sufficient to alter the character or substantially to affect the identity of the design, is applied;

“set of articles and non‑physical products” means one or more articles and one or more non‑physical products —

“set of non‑physical products” means 2 or more non‑physical products of the same general character that are ordinarily on sale together or intended to be used together, and to each of which the same design, or the same design with modifications or variations not sufficient to alter the character or substantially to affect the identity of the design, is applied.

Unless the context otherwise requires —

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, a device for projecting a non‑physical product —

Subject to this section, the designer of a design is to be treated for the purposes of this Act as the owner of the design.

Where a design is created by an employee in the course of his or her employment, his or her employer is to be treated as the owner of the design.

Subsection (2) is subject to any agreement to the contrary between the parties concerned.

Where a design, or the right to apply a design to any article or non‑physical product, becomes vested, whether by assignment, transmission or operation of law, in any person other than the owner, either alone or jointly with the owner, that other person or (as the case may be) the owner and that other person, is to be treated for the purposes of this Act as the owner of the design or as the owner of the design in relation to that article or non‑physical product.

In the case of a design generated by computer in circumstances such that there is no human designer, the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the design are made is deemed to be the designer.

Subject to the provisions of this Part, a design which is new may, upon application by the person claiming to be the owner, be registered in respect of an article, a non‑physical product, or a set of articles and non‑physical products, specified in the application.

A design for which an application for registration is made is not to be regarded as new if it is the same as a design —

The Registrar may, in such cases as may be prescribed, direct that, for the purpose of deciding whether a design is new, an application for registration of the design is to be treated as filed on a date earlier or later than that on which it was in fact filed.

No computer program or layout-design may be registered under this Act.

For the purposes of subsection (1), “layout-design” has the meaning given by the Layout-Designs of Integrated Circuits Act 1999.

The Minister may make rules —

Subject to subsection (3), an application for registration of a design must not be refused, and the registration of a design must not be revoked, by reason only of —

Subject to subsection (3), an application for registration of a design must not be refused, and the registration of a design must not be revoked, by reason only —

This section only applies to —

In this section, “official international exhibition” means an official, or officially recognised, international exhibition falling within the terms of the Convention on International Exhibitions signed at Paris on 22 November 1928, and any protocols to that Convention, as revised or amended from time to time.

An application for registration of a design must not be refused, and the registration of a design must not be revoked, by reason only of any of the following:

This section only applies to a disclosure mentioned in subsection (1)(a), (b), (c) or (d) that is made on or after 30 October 2017.

Subject to subsection (2), where an application is filed by or with the consent of the owner of copyright in an artistic work for the registration of a corresponding design, the design is not to be treated for the purposes of this Act as being other than new by reason only of any use previously made of the artistic work.

Subsection (1) does not apply if —

The Minister may make rules to provide for the circumstances in which a design is to be regarded as having been applied industrially, in relation to articles, non‑physical products or devices for projecting non‑physical products, for the purposes of this section.

Where the registered owner of a design registered in respect of an article or a non‑physical product files —

The right in a design registered by virtue of subsection (1) does not extend beyond the end of the period, and any extended period, for which the right subsists in the original design.

Where a person files an application for registration of a design in respect of an article or a non‑physical product and either —

An application for registration of a design must be filed in the prescribed manner with the Registrar, and is subject to the payment of the prescribed application fee.

The application must —

Except as otherwise provided in section 16A, the date on which the application is filed is the earliest date on which —

An application may be filed under subsection (1) for the registration of 2 or more designs, if —

Every application filed under subsection (1) for the registration of 2 or more designs is to be treated as if a separate application had been filed under that subsection for the registration of each of those designs.

Subject to subsection (7), where —

Where any person claims a right of priority in accordance with subsection (1) in respect of an application for the registration of a design —

Subsection (2) is not to be construed as excluding the power to give directions under section 5(3) in relation to the application for the registration of a design.

Despite any of the provisions of this Act, where a right of priority is claimed in respect of an application for the registration of a design, the application must not be refused, and the registration of the design under this Act must not be revoked, by reason only of the fact that the first Convention application has been published during the period between —

Any filing of an application for the registration of a design which in a Convention country is equivalent to a regular national filing, under its domestic legislation or an international agreement, is to be treated as giving rise to the right of priority.

In subsection (5), “regular national filing” means a filing which is adequate to establish the date on which the application was filed in the Convention country, whatever may be the outcome of the application.

Where a subsequent application for registration of a design concerning the same subject as an earlier application is filed, whether in the same or a different Convention country, and these are the first 2 applications concerning that subject to be filed in any Convention country, the subsequent application is to be considered the first Convention application if, at the date the subsequent application is filed —

To avoid doubt, where subsection (7) applies —

The Minister may make rules as to the manner of claiming priority under this section.

A right to priority arising under this section may be assigned or otherwise transmitted, either with the application or independently, and the reference in subsection (1) to the applicant’s “successor in title” is to be construed accordingly.

The Minister may by order confer on a person who has filed an application for registration of a design in a country or territory to which the Government has entered into a treaty, convention, arrangement or engagement for the reciprocal protection of registered designs, a right to priority, for the purpose of registering the same design under this Act for some or all of the same articles or non‑physical products, for a specified period from the date of filing of that application.

An order under this section may make provision corresponding to that set out in section 12 or such other provision as appears to the Minister to be appropriate.

An applicant may withdraw his or her application for registration of a design by filing a notice of withdrawal with the Registrar in the prescribed manner before the date on which preparations for publication under section 18 have been completed, as determined by the Registrar.

Where a notice of withdrawal is filed in accordance with subsection (1), the application is to be treated as withdrawn, and such withdrawal is irrevocable.

The Registrar may, on the Registrar’s own initiative or upon request made to the Registrar in the prescribed manner by the applicant and payment of the prescribed fee, amend an application for registration of a design.

An application for registration of a design must not be amended if, as a result of the amendment, the scope of the application would be increased by the inclusion of matter that was not in substance disclosed in the application as filed.

The class or classes (under the classification mentioned in section 75(1)(c)) of articles, non‑physical products, or sets of articles and non‑physical products, to which a design is intended to be applied, as specified in an application for registration of the design, must not be amended if —

The Registrar is not obliged to correct on his or her own initiative any error not due to the default of the Registrar.

Where the Registrar proposes to make any amendment on his or her own initiative, the Registrar must give notice of the proposal to every person who appears to the Registrar to be likely to be affected by the amendment, and must give the person an opportunity to be heard before making the amendment.

The Registrar must examine an application for registration of a design, being an application which has not been withdrawn, to determine whether it satisfies the formal requirements.

If the Registrar determines that an application fails to comply with the formal requirements, the Registrar must notify the applicant and give the applicant an opportunity to correct the non-compliance within such period as the Registrar determines.

If the non-compliance is not corrected within the period referred to in subsection (2), the application is to be treated as withdrawn, but the Registrar may, upon —

Upon reinstatement of an application, any right or means of redress lost by the applicant as a result of the withdrawal must be restored to the applicant.

Where, on examining an application for registration of a design (called in this section the earlier application) under section 16(1), the Registrar determines that the earlier application fails to comply with either or both of the formal requirements of section 11(2)(c) and (4)(a) (where applicable), the Registrar may, when notifying the applicant of the non‑compliance under section 16(2), invite the applicant to correct the non‑compliance by filing one or more new applications under section 11.

A new application must not be filed under subsection (1) if —

The Registrar must refuse any new application filed in contravention of subsection (2).

Each new application filed under subsection (1) is to be treated as filed on the date of filing of the earlier application, if all of the following requirements are satisfied:

The Registrar may refuse an application for registration of a design if —

The Registrar may refuse an application for registration of a design if, on the face of the application, the design is not new or is not registrable for any other reason.

The Registrar must give notice of any refusal under this section to the applicant.

An applicant may, when filing the applicant’s application for registration of a design, request that any publication under section 18 of the design be deferred for the prescribed period after the date of filing of that application.

A request under subsection (1) must be made in the prescribed manner and accompanied by the prescribed fee.

Despite section 18, the Registrar must defer the publication under that section of a design which is the subject of a request under subsection (1) for the prescribed period referred to in that subsection.

The Minister may make rules to provide for the deferment of the publication under section 18 of a registered design and for matters relating thereto.

The initial period of registration of a design is 5 years from the date of registration of the design.

The period of registration of a design may be extended for a second and third period of 5 years, by applying to the Registrar for an extension, and paying the prescribed extension fee, before the expiry of the current period of registration.

The Minister may make rules for the Registrar to inform the registered owner of a design, before the expiry of the current period of registration, of the imminent expiry of the registration and the manner in which it may be extended.

If the application and payment are not made before the expiry of the current period of registration, the registration of the design ceases to be in force upon the expiry of that period and must be removed from the Register.

If, during the period of 6 months immediately following the expiry of the current period of registration, an application for extension is made and the extension fee and any prescribed late fee are paid, the registration of the design is to be treated as if it had never ceased to be in force, and accordingly —

The Minister may make rules to provide for the restoration of the registration of a design which has been removed from the Register, subject to such conditions as may be prescribed.

Despite section 21, where it is shown that a registered design —

Despite section 21, the period of registration of a design registered by virtue of section 10(1) does not extend beyond the end of the period of registration, and any extended period of registration, of the original registered design.

After a design is registered, any person having or claiming an interest in the design may apply to the Court to determine —

Without limiting subsection (1), an order referred to in that subsection may contain one or more of the following directions:

If any person to whom a direction referred to in subsection (2)(d) was given fails to comply with the direction within 14 days after the date of the order, the Court may, on application made to it by any person in whose favour or on whose application the order was made, authorise the second-mentioned person to do that thing on behalf of the person to whom the direction was given.

If an application under this section is made after the end of the period of 2 years from the date of issue of the certificate of registration referred to in section 18(c) in respect of the design in question, no order is to be made under subsection (1) transferring any right in the design from the registered owner to any other person on the ground that the registered owner was not entitled to be registered as the owner, unless it is shown that the registered owner knew at the time of the registration or of the transfer of the design to the registered owner (as the case may be) that the registered owner was not entitled to be registered as the owner.

The Court is not to make any order under subsection (1) unless notice of the application has first been given to —

Where an order is made under section 23(1) that a registered design be transferred from any person or persons (called in this section the old owner or owners) to one or more persons (whether or not including an old owner), then, except in a case falling within subsection (2), any licences or other rights granted or created by the old owner or owners, subject to section 34 and to the provisions of the order, continue in force and are to be treated as granted by the person or persons to whom the design is ordered to be transferred (called in this section the new owner or owners).

Where an order is so made that a registered design must be transferred from the old owner or owners to one or more persons none of whom was an old owner (on the ground that the design was registered in the name of a person not entitled to be registered as an owner), any licences or other rights in the design will, subject to the provisions of the order and subsection (3), lapse on the registration of that person or those persons as the new owner or owners of the design.

Where an order referred to in subsection (2) is made and, before particulars of the reference resulting in the making of the order are entered in the Register, the old owner or owners or a licensee —

A licence under subsection (3) must be for a reasonable period and subject to reasonable terms.

The new owner or owners of the registered design or any person claiming that the person is entitled to be granted a licence under subsection (3) may apply to the Court for a determination of whether —

The Court is to make the determination under subsection (5) and may —

The registration of a design may be surrendered by the registered owner in respect of all or any of the articles or non‑physical products for which the design is registered.

The Minister may make rules —

At any time after a design has been registered, any interested person may apply to the Registrar or the Court for the revocation of the registration of the design on the ground that the design was not, at the date of its registration, new, or on any other ground on which the Registrar could have refused to register the design; and the Registrar may make such order on the application as the Registrar thinks fit.

At any time after a design has been registered, any interested person may apply to the Registrar or the Court for the revocation of the registration on the ground that —

If proceedings concerning a design are pending in the Court, an application for the revocation of its registration must be made to the Court.

If an application for the revocation of the registration of a design is made to the Registrar, the Registrar may at any time refer the application to the Court.

An application to the Registrar for the revocation of the registration of a design must be made in the prescribed manner and be accompanied by the prescribed fee.

A revocation takes effect —

The Minister may make rules to provide for revocation proceedings before the Registrar and for matters relating thereto.

After the registration of a design and upon the filing of a written request by any person in the prescribed manner and the payment of the prescribed fee, the Registrar must —

Rules may be made empowering the Registrar to refuse any request in respect of such information or documents as may be prescribed.

Until notice of registration of a design is published under section 18, any information or documents constituting or relating to the application for registration must not, without the consent of the owner or the applicant (as the case may be), be published or communicated to any person by the Registrar.

Subsection (3) does not prevent the Registrar from publishing or communicating to others any prescribed information relating to an application for registration of a design.

Where a person is notified that an application for registration of a design has been made and that the applicant will, if the design is registered, bring proceedings against that person in the event of that person doing an act specified in the notification, that person may make a request under subsection (1).

The Registrar may grant the request under subsection (1) without the consent of the applicant, even though the design has not been registered.

Where an application for registration of a design has been made and it appears to the Registrar that the design is one of a class notified to the Registrar by the Minister as relevant for defence purposes, the Registrar must give directions for prohibiting or restricting —

Rules may be made for securing that where such directions are given —

Any person who fails to comply with a direction of the Registrar shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

Where such directions are in force, the application —

Where the Registrar gives such directions, the Registrar must give notice of the application and of the directions to the Minister, and thereupon the following provisions have effect:

Where —

Nothing in this section prevents the disclosure of information concerning a design to a Government department or authority for the purpose of obtaining advice as to whether the directions under this section with respect to an application for registration of that design should be made, amended or revoked.

The registration of a design under this Act gives to the registered owner the following exclusive rights:

For the purposes of this Act, the right in a registered design is infringed by any person who, without the consent of the registered owner and while the registration is in force —

In subsection (2), “kit” means a complete or substantially complete set of components intended to be assembled into an article.

In the application of subsection (2) to a registered design of which there is more than one registered owner, the reference to the registered owner is to be construed —

For the purposes of this Act, the right in a registered design is not infringed by —

The right in a registered design is not infringed by the reproduction of a feature of the design which, by virtue of paragraph (b) or (c) of the definition of “design” in section 2(1), is left out of account in determining whether the design is registrable.

The right in a registered design is not infringed by —

A person who, before the date of registration of a design —

If the act was done, or the preparations were made, in the course of a business, the person entitled to the right conferred by subsection (1) may —

The right conferred by subsection (2) does not include a right to grant a licence to any person to do an act referred to in subsection (1).

Where an article, a non‑physical product, or a device for projecting a non‑physical product, is disposed of to another person in exercise of a right conferred by subsection (1), that other person, and any person claiming through that other person, may deal with the article, non‑physical product or device in the same way as if the article, non‑physical product or device had been disposed of by the owner of the design concerned.

A registered design or any right in it is personal property and may be assigned or transmitted in the same way as other personal property.

A registered design or any right in it may be vested by an assent of personal representatives.

A licence may be granted for the use of a registered design and, to the extent that the licence so provides, a sub-licence may be granted under any such licence.

Any such licence or sub-licence —

Subsections (1) to (4) have effect subject to this Act.

An assignment of a design or a right therein, or an assent relating to a registered design or a right therein, is not effective unless it is in writing and signed by or on behalf of the assignor or (as the case may be) a personal representative.

Subsection (6) may be satisfied in a case where the assignor or personal representative is a body corporate by the affixing of its seal.

Subsections (6) and (7) apply to an assignment by way of security as they apply to any other assignment.

A registered design or any right in it may be the subject of a charge in the same way as other personal or movable property.

An assignment of a registered design or any right in it, or an exclusive licence in relation to a registered design, may confer on the assignee or licensee the right of the assignor or licensor to bring proceedings under section 23 or 36.

Subject to any agreement to the contrary, where there is more than one registered owner of a registered design, each of them is entitled to an equal undivided share in the rights in the design.

Subject to this section and to any agreement to the contrary, where there is more than one registered owner of a registered design, each of them is entitled, by himself, herself or itself or the registered owner’s agent, to do in relation to the design and for the registered owner’s own benefit and without the consent of, or the need to account to, the other or others, an act which would otherwise amount to an infringement of the design.

Subject to any agreement to the contrary, where there is more than one registered owner of a registered design, a registered owner must not, without the consent of each of the others —

Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) affects the mutual rights or obligations of trustees or personal representatives of a deceased person, or their rights or obligations as such.

On application being made to the Registrar by —

The following are registrable transactions under subsection (1):

Until an application has been made for registration of the prescribed particulars of a registrable transaction, the transaction is ineffective as against a person acquiring a conflicting interest in the registered design in ignorance of it.

Despite any provision of this Act, a person who becomes the registered owner or licensee of a registered design by virtue of a registrable transaction is not entitled to —