Oral Answer by Minister of State for Law Murali Pillai to PQ on Intellectual Property...

15 October 2024 Posted in Parliamentary speeches and responses

Question for Oral Answer

Ms See Jinli Jean (Nominated Member of Parliament)

Question:
To ask the Minister for Law (a) for each year from 2019 to 2024, how many cases has the Ministry received from creators seeking help about the plagiarising of their artworks; (b) how many cases have been satisfactorily resolved and what are the remedies; (c) what steps are taken to ensure that businesses know of the need to engage the creators on using their intellectual property (IP); and (d) what avenues are available to creators to get affordable help to enforce their IP rights.

Oral Answer:

1. The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) runs weekly IP legal clinics where creators can receive complimentary legal advice from practising lawyers about enforcement and infringement of IP rights. This includes understanding available options if they find that their rights have been potentially infringed. About one in four of the sessions touched on copyright infringement. Due to the confidential nature of these sessions, IPOS is not privy to the details of the individual cases, including their progress and outcomes.

2. Besides IPOS' IP legal clinics, creators can consider alternative dispute resolution (ADR), such as mediation which is often more cost-effective and expeditious, compared to litigation. IPOS runs various mediation support programmes, including collaborating with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center to promote ADR by offering reduced rates.

3. IPOS also provides a variety of initiatives to increase public awareness of IP rights and build up IP capabilities. For example, IPOS' subsidiary IPOS International runs the IP Academy, which conducts courses to raise the understanding of IP amongst businesses.

4. In addition, IPOS recently signed a 3-year MOU with the Visual, Audio, Creative Content Professionals Association (Singapore) (VICPA), of which I believe the honourable member Ms See is a part of the leadership team, to provide support to creative freelance professionals and young creators in the area of IP education and management, capacity building and resource sharing. The MOU builds on collaborations between IPOS and VICPA since 2021. Working with VICPA and other partners continues to be an important approach to supporting creators across the multi-faceted issues that they face.

Last updated on 15 October 2024