Singapore to become “IP hub” for Russian businesses
Singapore is soon to become an “IP hub” for innovative Russian enterprises, after the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore’s (IPOS) international arm made an agreement with Russia’s Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF).
Yesterday, November 14, the organisations signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which IPOS will act as an IP management provider to Russian enterprises seeking access to Asian growth markets.
According to IPOS, the IIDF is Russia’s most active venture capital fund and accelerator.
IPOS will give the Russian enterprises access to IP management consultancy services, bespoke patent search and analytics, and customised training programmes and workshops.
This will broaden the IP expertise and market know-how of companies in IIDF’s portfolio that are seeking to enter the Asian markets, enabling the enterprises to “scale up and gain greater access to high growth market opportunities in Asia through Singapore”, IPOS said.
It noted that the ASEAN region is poised to be the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030.
Kirill Varlamov, director of IIDF, said: “The synergetic effect of this collaboration highlights the benefits of Singapore as an IP gateway to global markets for the entire society of start-ups and small medium businesses of Russia that have their core competencies in deep technologies.”
In return, IIDF will assist Singaporean enterprises by enhancing their knowledge of and access to the Russian innovation ecosystem.
IPOS noted that Russia’s IP filings have grown year-on-year since 2010, and there are “abundant opportunities” for Singaporean enterprises to collaborate with Russian entities to create innovative products.
Daren Tang, chairman of IPOS’s international arm, said: “Singapore has developed a top-class IP regime and built strong connections to the dynamic and growing Asian innovation ecosystem through its extensive network of agreements.
“Russian enterprises will find Singapore to be an ideal location to anchor and leverage on their IP and intangible assets to access Asia’s growth markets,” he added.
Singapore’s senior minister of state for trade and industry, Koh Poh Koon, and the Russian deputy prime minister, Maxim Akimov, yesterday witnessed the exchange of the MoU.
This is the latest step that IPOS has taken to develop Singapore’s innovation landscape.
In September, IPOS signed a MoU with specialist insurance market Lloyd’s Asia in a bid to develop the IP insurance landscape in Singapore.
During the same month, Singapore and China announced plans to establish an IP innovation service centre in the “Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City”, aimed at linking the innovation ecosystems of both countries more closely.
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