SINGAPORE LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Jeffrey Lim, Daniel Lim, Frederick Tay, Genevi Lim, Lakshmanan Anbarazan, Sarah Lai, Stephanie Goh and Tobias Andreas Satria, Joyce A. Tan & Partners LLC
11.2 Intellectual Property Protections Singapore’s legal system is widely regarded as fast and efficient, and as one of the leading systems glob - ally in terms of integrity and adherence to the rule of law. It is consistently recognised for its efficiency, and is ranked as the world’s second-best jurisdiction and the leading jurisdiction in Asia for IP protection, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. IP protection is generally accessible but it should be noted that, unlike some countries, Singapore does not have sui generis database rights and there are court decisions which indicate that there is no copyright protection in mere information or facts, and there is no explicit general recognition of copyright in AI-gen - erated works (this remains a fact-specific assessment determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the degree of human involvement), and there is no decision supporting the proposition that AI can be an “inventor” under the Singapore Patents Act 1994. That said, Singapore does provide certain limited exceptions to copyright infringement in the context of training AI systems. These are set out in Part 5, Division 8 of the Copyright Act 2021, which relates to computational data analysis. It should be noted, however, that these exceptions are subject to specific qualifications, and the relevant statutory criteria must be satisfied before they can be relied upon. 11.3 Data Protection and Privacy Considerations Singapore has a cross-sector data protection law, the Personal Data Protection Act 2012, which applies as a baseline standard of data protection. The Act defers to other Singapore statutes/written law where a higher standard applies, by virtue of Section 4 (6)(b) of the Act. There is, therefore, certain sector-specific legis - lation that provides certain alternative standards that apply to certain sector-specific regulated activities. By way of example, the Human Biomedical Research Act 2015 displaces the application of the PDPA in respect of human biomedical research and instead imposes an institutional review board–based regulatory frame - work.
Other than in the case of trade unions, there is no con - cept of a works council in Singapore, and no separate consultation mechanism is required. It should also be noted that, unless expressly provided for in an employee’s contract of employment or stipu - lated in an applicable collective agreement, there is no statutory right for employees to claim severance pay - ments from their employer. This position also applies where, following the completion of a transfer of under - taking, the transferee entity subsequently makes cer - tain roles redundant. Any severance or retrenchment payments are therefore generally made at the employ - er’s discretion, although employers are encouraged to have regard to the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment. 11. Intellectual Property and Data Protection 11.1 Intellectual Property Considerations for Approval of FDI Intellectual property laws in Singapore generally do not limit the ownership/control by foreign entities, with the exception that there are mandatory national security clearances required under section 34 of the Patents Act 1994, which prescribes that no person resident in Singapore may, without written authority granted by the Registrar of IPOS, file or cause to be filed outside Singapore an application for a patent for an invention unless an application for a patent for the same invention has been filed in the Registry at least two months before the application outside Singapore, and an application for a patent for the same inven - tion has been filed in the Registry at least two months before the application outside Singapore. Section 33 gives the power to the Registrar to give directions pro - hibiting or restricting the publication of that informa - tion in a patent application, or its communication, to any specified person or class of persons, where the application contains information of a description noti - fied to the Registrar by the Minister as being informa - tion the publication of which could be prejudicial to the defence of Singapore.
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