New Patents and Trade Marks Acceleration Programmes

On 20 May 2025, Singapore will launch new patent and trademark acceleration programmes, dubbed Patents Fast and Trademarks Fast. These replace the SG IP FAST pilot programme that ended on 31 December 2024.  The new programmes promise faster examination, with simpler and broader acceptance criteria, appearing to apply to patent applications initially filed outside Singapore for the first time.  A fee will be payable to Singapore’s IP office (IPOS) to help cover the costs incurred in prioritising these applications.

Patent

SG Patents Fast  

Under the new SG Patents Fast acceleration programme, there are two ways to accelerate the patent examination process:

1. SG Patents Fast 4: Receive first office action within four months of successful application; and  
2. SG Patents Fast 8: Receive first office action within eight months of successful application.

The only difference in the schemes is the cost for acceleration – as explained below.

To qualify for either of these two schemes: 

1. The patent application concerned must not be a divisional application; 
2. The application must contain 20 or fewer claims (this can be by amendment of the claims before requesting acceleration); and 
3. The acceleration request must be filed together with the request for search and examination or the request for examination. 

Note: Successful SG Patents Fast applications will qualify for acceleration of subsequent office actions, which will be issued within four months. There is a monthly cap of five requests per entity (individual or corporate), although this cap does not apply to requests for acceleration of subsequent office actions.

The official fees for requesting acceleration (in addition to the standard official fees for requesting search and examination) are as follows:

Trade Mark 

SG Trade Marks Fast allows applicants to receive a first examination report or publication notice within three to six weeks of filing. The new programme no longer requires a related patent or full use of pre-approved goods/services descriptions.

To qualify for this scheme, the following must be complied with:

1. It must be a national trade mark application (filed directly with IPOS);
2. It must be requested at the time of filing the application; and
3. It is not for a certification mark or collective mark.

The official fees for requesting for fast track examination for a national mark application (in addition to the standard official fees for an application) are as follows:

Please feel free to reach out to Marks & Clerk Sinagapore LLP if you have any enquiries regarding IPOS’ acceleration programmes.