The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and Singapore, which was initialed in September 2013 and is expected to be effective by the end of 2014, paved the way for a new GI law adopted by the Singaporean Parliament.
The new law provides for enhanced protection for GIs, improved border enforcement measures and establishes a GIs registry (which will be effective though after the ratification of the FTA between Singapore and the EU). Previous to that, GIs were protected in Singapore under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) minimum standards of protection.
Once the law is in force, EU PDO/PGI will be allowed to apply for registration in the national GI registry, including the 196 PDO/PGI submitted by the EU in the framework of the FTA negotiations. All applications for GI registration will undergo a three-stage process: (i) application; (ii) examination; and (iii) publication/pre-grant opposition. If no opposition is received in respect of a GI application before the end of the publication/pre-grant opposition period, that GI will proceed to registration.
More information @ http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2012/november/tradoc_150129.pdf (page 4).
This summary has been extracted from an “oriGIn Alert”, which is a service reserved exclusively to oriGIn members.
