Trade Marks Act 1998 - Singapore Statutes Online

REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE

ACTS SUPPLEMENT

Published by Authority

NO. 49]

Thursday, December 24

[1998

The following Act was passed by Parliament on 26th November 1998 and assented to by the President on 11th December 1998:—

Trade Marks Act 1998

(No. 46 of 1998)

I assent.

ONG TENG CHEONG,

President.

11th December 1998.

Date of Commencement: 15th January 1999

An Act to establish a new law for trade marks, to enable Singapore to give effect to certain international conventions on intellectual property and for matters connected therewith, to repeal the Trade Marks Act (Chapter 332 of the 1992 Revised Edition) and to make consequential amendments to certain other written laws.

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

PART I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Trade Marks Act 1998 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

(2) The Minister may appoint different dates for the coming into operation of the different Parts or provisions of this Act.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“business” includes a trade or profession;

“certification mark” has the meaning assigned to it in section 61;

“collective mark” has the meaning assigned to it in section 60;

“Convention country” means a country or territory, other than Singapore, which is a party to the Paris Convention or a member of the World Trade Organisation;

“Court” means the High Court;

“earlier trade mark” means —

(a)	a registered trade mark or international trade mark (Singapore), the application for registration of which was made earlier than the trade mark in question, taking account (where appropriate) of the priorities claimed in respect of the trade marks; or
(b)	a trade mark which, at the date of application for registration of the trade mark in question or (where appropriate) of the priority claimed in respect of the application, was entitled to protection under the Paris Convention or the TRIPS Agreement as a well known trade mark,

and includes a trade mark in respect of which an application for registration has been made and which, if registered, would be an earlier trade mark by virtue of paragraph (a) subject to its being so registered;

“geographical indication” has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Geographical Indications Act 1998;

“international trade mark (Singapore)” has the meaning given to it under section 54;

“Paris Convention” means the Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property signed at Paris on 20th March 1883, as revised or amended from time to time;

“proprietor”, in relation to a registered trade mark, means the person in whose name the trade mark is registered;

“register” means the register of trade marks maintained by the Registrar under section 66;

“Registrar” means the Registrar of Trade Marks referred to in section 62 and includes any Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks referred to in that section;

“Registry” means the Registry of Trade Marks established under section 64;

“repealed Act” means the Trade Marks Act (Cap. 332) repealed by this Act;

“sign” includes any letter, word, name, signature, numeral, device, brand, heading, label, ticket, shape, colour, aspect of packaging or any combination thereof;

“trade” includes any business or profession;

“trade mark” means any visually perceptible sign capable of being represented graphically and which is capable of distinguishing goods or services dealt with or provided in the course of trade by a person from goods or services so dealt with or provided by any other person;

“TRIPS Agreement” means the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, set out in Annex 1C to the WTO Agreement, as revised or amended from time to time;

“WTO Agreement” means the World Trade Organisation Agreement signed in Marrakesh in 1994 as revised or amended from time to time.

(2) References in this Act to a trade mark include any trade mark which relates to a service that is ancillary to goods or services dealt with or provided in the course of trade by a person, whether or not the service is provided for money or money’s worth.

(3) References in this Act to a trade mark include, unless the context otherwise requires, a collective mark or certification mark.

(4) References in this Act to use (or any particular description of use) of a trade mark, or of a sign identical with, similar to, or likely to be mistaken for a trade mark, include use (or that description of use) otherwise than by means of a graphic representation.

(5) References in this Act to registration (in particular, in the expression “registered trade mark”) are, unless the context otherwise requires, to registration in the register.

(6) In this Act, a sign is taken to be applied to goods, material or any other thing if it is woven in, impressed on, worked into, or affixed or annexed to, the goods, material or thing.

(7) In deciding, for the purposes of this Act, whether a trade mark is well known in Singapore, one shall take into account the extent to which the trade mark is known within the relevant sector of the public, whether as a result of the promotion of the trade mark or any other reason.

Meaning of infringing goods, material or articles

3.—(1) For the purposes of this Act, “infringing goods”, “infringing material” and “infringing articles” shall be construed in accordance with subsections (2), (3) and (4), respectively.

(2) Goods are “infringing goods”, in relation to a registered trade mark, if they or their packaging bear a sign identical with or similar to that mark and —

(a)	the application of the sign to the goods or their packaging was an infringement of the registered trade mark;
(b)	the goods are proposed to be imported into Singapore and the application of the sign in Singapore to them or their packaging would be an infringement of the registered trade mark; or
(c)	the sign has otherwise been used in relation to the goods in such a way as to infringe the registered trade mark.

(3) Material is “infringing material”, in relation to a registered trade mark, if it bears a sign identical with or similar to that mark and either —

(a)	it is used for labelling or packaging goods, as a business paper, or for advertising goods or services, in such a way as to infringe the registered trade mark; or
(b)	it is intended to be so used and such use would infringe the registered trade mark.

(4) “Infringing articles”, in relation to a registered trade mark, means articles —

(a)	which are predominantly used for making copies of a sign identical with or similar to that mark; and
(b)	which a person has in his possession, custody or control, knowing or having reason to believe that they have been or are to be used to produce infringing goods or material.

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