Singapore "Should Lead" In Regional Patent Legislation

Singapore's recently-approved bill (Marketletter November 28) has failed to give the pharmaceutical industry full protection for intellectual property, said senior Glaxo officials visiting the island state, because it does not incorporate safeguards to protect intellectual property rights as laid down in the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.

All members of the World Trade Organization, which is due to go into effect January 1, 1995 (replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; Marketletters passim) are expected to sign the TRIPS agreement.

The Singapore government has said the nation's new patent law will make it easier and cheaper for people to register patents, and Singapore Law Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar told parliament before it passed the bill that some representatives had made suggestions on the bill, taking into account the TRIPS agreement.