SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Yvonne Tang, Lim Siau Wen and Ruby Tham, Drew & Napier LLC
12. Additional Considerations 12.1 Emerging Issues Artificial Intelligence (AI)
12.2 Trade Mark and Copyright Use on the Internet “Site-Blocking” Orders A copyright owner or its exclusive licensee may apply to the General Division of the High Court for a “site- blocking” order (an access-disabling order) to require a network connection provider to take reasonable steps to disable access to an online location that has been or is being used to flagrantly commit or facilitate copy - right infringements. “Dynamic” injunctions requiring the network connection provider to block any new means (for instance, additional domain names, URL and/or IP addresses) of accessing the same infringing online locations have also been granted in recent years. Commercial Dealings With a Device or Service Capable of Facilitating Access to an Infringing Work Protected by Copyright Commercial dealing (including sale or distribution) by a person of a device capable of facilitating access (for example, set-top boxes or other devices containing pre-loaded applications that stream infringing materi - als) or the provision of a service that facilitates access to an infringing copyrighted work is an infringement of the copyright in a work, if the person knows or ought reasonably to have known that the device or service: • was capable of facilitating access to works com - municated to the public without the authority of their copyright owners; and • has only a limited commercially significant purpose or use other than that capacity. Such commercial dealing also amounts to a criminal offence under the Copyright Act. In 2025, a criminal prosecution in Singapore involving the sale of illegal streaming devices resulted in a jail term of 22 months for the convicted offender. Online Marketplaces Major online marketplaces operating in Singapore have established takedown/notice policies to address trade mark and copyright infringement complaints. In prac - tice, demonstrating proof of ownership of the relevant Singapore trade mark registration is an effective way to support complaints against trade mark counterfeits.
Singapore aims to be a global hub for developing, test- bedding, deploying and scaling AI solutions. It was observed in the 2019 Singapore Copyright Review Report, published by the Singapore government, that “text and data mining and its applications are crucial to fuelling economic growth and supporting Singapore’s drive to catalyse innovation in the digital economy”. To support Singapore’s efforts to grow its AI sector, a copyright exception for computational data analy - sis (which by definition includes text and data mining) activities was introduced in November 2021 (the “TDM exception”). The TDM exception permits the copying or communication of a copy of a work or recording of a performance if the copy is made for the purposes of computational analysis or preparing the work for com - putational data analysis, provided certain conditions are met that were put in place to safeguard the com - mercial interests of the copyright owners (for instance, that the user must have lawful access to the works that are copied). The TDM exception applies only to acts performed in Singapore. The TDM exception is poten - tially far-reaching as it may not be excluded by contract and extends to both non-commercial and commercial activities. However, the operation and limits of the TDM exception are untested in the Singapore courts. A report (“When Code Creates: A Landscape Report on Issues at the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Law”), published on 28 February 2024 by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and the Singapore Management Univer - sity, observed that under Singapore law the author of authorial works – ie, literary, dramatic, musical, artistic works – must be a natural person, and concluded that under the current position an AI system cannot be named as an author. There have not been any reported trade mark or copy - right decisions pertaining to generative AI in Singapore. Outcomes in the UK, EU and USA on these issues would very likely be considered by Singapore courts when determining the same issues.
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