Registered Designs Act 2000 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Rights in Registered Designs
31. Rights of third parties to continue use of registered designs
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2017.
A person who, before the date of registration of a design —
design
“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 —(a)a method or principle of construction;(b)features of shape, configuration or colours of an article or a non‑physical product that —(i)are dictated solely by the function that the article or non‑physical product has to perform;(ii)are dependent upon the appearance of another article or non‑physical product of which the article or non‑physical product is intended by the designer to form an integral part; or(iii)enable the article or non‑physical product to be connected to, or placed in, around or against, another article or non‑physical product, so that either article or non‑physical product may perform its function; or(c)features consisting only of one or more colours that —(i)are not used with any feature of shape or configuration; and(ii)do not give rise to any feature of pattern or ornament;
does in good faith in Singapore an act which would have constituted an infringement of the design if the registration had been in force at the time the act is done; or
makes in good faith effective and serious preparations to do such an act in Singapore,has the right to continue to do the act or (as the case may be) to do the act.
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 —
authorise the doing of that act by any of the person’s partners for the time being in that business; and
assign that right, or transmit it on death (or in the case of a body corporate on its dissolution), to any person who acquires that part of the business in the course of which the act was done or the preparations were made.
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.
article
“article” means any thing that is manufactured (whether by an industrial process, by hand or otherwise), and includes —(a)any part of an article, if that part is made and sold separately; and(b)any set of articles;