Patent Revocation

Grounds of Revocation

• The ground of revocation of the patent in Singapore is spelled out under Section 80 (1) of the Patents Act, where any person can apply to revoke patents on (among other things) the following grounds: The invention is not a patentable patent, i.e. the patent lacks novelty, inventive step or industrial applicability;

• The patent was granted to a person not entitled to be granted that patent; 

• The specification of the patent does not disclose the invention clearly and completely for it to be performed by a person skilled in the art; 

• The matter disclosed in the specification of the granted patent is broader than that disclosed and filed in the patent application; 

• The protection conferred by the patent has been extended by an amendment which should not have been allowed; 

• The patent was fraudulently obtained or obtained under a misrepresentation; or 

• The applicant failed to inform the Registrar of the details of corresponding international applications or provided false information. 

Further, the Registrar of IPOS, on his own initiative by order, has the power to revoke a patent if the subject matter invention of the said patent forms part of the state of the art by virtue of:

• being disclosed in another patent as filed and published; or 

• having an earlier priority date in another patent as filed and published. 

In this instance as provided in Section 81 of the Patents Act, it is the duty of the Registrar to provide the patentee an opportunity of making any observation and/or amending the specification of the patent to exclude subject matter that forms part of the state of the art.

It has to be noted that since the patent registration system in Singapore is largely a self-assessing system and a patent applicant will not be prevented from paying the grant fee even if the examination report is unfavourable, patents granted may be weak, and may be vulnerable to revocation. Therefore, it would be prudent for applicants to consider Examiner's report, and to take corrective steps to amend the claims if the report is adverse, in order to obtain a fairly strong patent against revocation.