Insights Centre

Just before Christmas in 2023, the unthinkable happened - the US International Trade Commission ruled that Apple’s watches infringed on Masimo’s patents and later handed down a US import ban on the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2. The ban went into effect on 26 Dec 2023, but Apple swiftly filed an appeal and won a court order to temporarily pause the ban. Find out more in our 5-min read.

The Australians want to call their sparkling wines “Prosecco” after the name of the grape, but the Italians argue that “Prosecco” should be used for wines only from the Italian region. The Singapore Court of Appeal decides. Find out how in our 5-min read.

In the constellation of business accolades, it usually doesn’t hurt to come in on top, but this one probably will. We discuss why Elon Musk’s rebranding of Twitter to X is probably the most expensive rebranding in history and how business owners can avoid the same fate by getting their intellectual property (IP) ducks in a row.

Taylor Swift faced a lawsuit alleging that her hit song "Shake It Off" infringed the copyright of another song. But as she says, "haters gonna hate". Find out how Taylor swiftly shook it off in our 5-min read! 

The truth is that it is hard to trust newly qualified lawyers after just 6 months of training. The current system also does not afford firms and trainees sufficient time for the trainees to get up to speed with legal work before being assessed for the purposes of retention.

Not many know that in Singapore, copyright protection does not extend to an artistic work that could have been registered as a design but was not, and, has been used in relation to more than 50 manufactured products. So, how come (assumingly well-advised) H&M sued for copyright infringement, and in Hong Kong? Find out more in our 5-minute Read.

After a few rounds of trade mark advocacy, we finally managed to get our client’s trade mark registered. Find out more in this (just a bit more than) 5-minute read.

Did you know that Rolex & Hublot watch counterfeiters have begun passing off these imitation watches as the real ones to unsuspecting customers? Fortunately, a Singapore court decided that a seller of such watches must return the monies paid for the imitation watches on the grounds of a breach of an implied or express condition of authenticity. Find out how she did it in this 5-min read.

Barbie’s owner, Mattel, has accused luxury brand Burberry of intentionally choosing to register “BRBY” as a trademark so that consumers would associate Burberry products with the Barbie brand. Srsly?! Check out our 5-min read to find out more.

In the augmented reality space, the “Reality Engine” is the branding used for a real-time broadcast compositing system that enables real-time visual effects. The Reality Engine mark is and has been used by a Turkish company, Zero Density, even before the Application Mark was filed. We successfully assisted our client to oppose the Application Mark and now our client is the owner of the “Reality Engine” trade mark in Singapore.

Many players in the virtual space are under the impression that, inter alia, the decentralised nature of the blockchain would be sufficient to protect them against any recriminations stemming from real world IP law. This decision is a major statement warning the NFT industry that trade mark law is enforceable against the blockchain.  

The introduction of this new Simplified Process opens avenues of recourse for less well-resourced parties to assert, protect, and defend their IP rights. The Court’s robust control over proceedings allows parties to manage the cost of IP dispute resolution. In fact, the Judge in Tiger Pictures cautioned future litigants that “parties should not be allowed to hold the Courts hostage by insisting on dragging a relatively simple matter through the normal route”.

Getting the Market Readiness Assistance Grant was a blessing for small businesses like mine. I need to protect my trademark and strengthen my brand before I can expand. Moving forward, as the company grows, I will consider setting up overseas operations, in order to connect with my customers better.

Since Aējou is such a unique product, we knew we had to protect our brand right from the start. We registered the Aējou trademark across SE Asia, Europe and the U.S. Registering our trademark is critical for letting others know that we are the rightful owners of the Aējou brand.

The 1872 Clipper Tea Co. leveraged upon the EnterpriseSG’s Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant to take a more future-proof view in protecting the business’ intellectual property. The MRA grant helped him to search, strategise and apply for trade mark rights across 30 jurisdictions worldwide, including the US., Canada, SE Asia, China, Australia and New Zealand.

In the recent High Court decision, Siemens v Inzign, the Court held that a company can be held liable for an errant employee’s infringement of copyright by applying the doctrine of vicarious liability, 

Homegrown brands like Secretlab, Hegen, and Razer spring to mind when we think of local businesses that were able to commercialise their products globally had done so with the support of strong and appropriate IP protection.