SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Tony Yeo, Meryl Koh, Rozalynne Asmali and Javier Yeo, Drew & Napier LLC
a patent infringement suit has commenced and the defendant discloses its manufacturing process to the patent proprietor to prove non-infringement. The generic’s manufacturing process may be a trade secret. In such situations, the generic will typically apply to establish a confidentiality club to limit the disclosure of its manufacturing process to only named individual members of the confidentiality club.
In general, the appellate court will be slow to upset an exercise of discretion by the trial judge. In relation to finding of facts, the appellate court is also generally slow to overturn a trial judge’s findings because the trial judge is in a better position to assess the veracity and credibility of the witnesses, unless they can be shown to be plainly wrong or against the weight of the evidence. Similarly, in relation to patent matters, the appellate court will be cautious in differing from the trial judge’s evaluation of what was obvious. On the other hand, there is a distinction between the perception of facts and evaluation of facts, the latter of which the appellate court is in as good a position as the trial court to make an evaluation from primary facts. If a final injunction is overturned, or if the patent is revoked, the final injunction will be lifted immediately from the date of the order. For completeness, the Court of Appeal will usually include in its orders that all orders by the trial judge (including the order for the final injunction) are set aside, if the appellant is suc ‑ cessful on appeal. 7.2 Appeal Court(s) Arbiter Singapore has specialised Intellectual Property Judg ‑ es who will be docketed to hear patent matters. 7.3 Special Provisions The substantive act that governs patents in Singapore is the Patents Act. There are two sets of court rules that govern IP mat ‑ ters: • the ROC 2021, which applies to all court proceed ‑ ings regardless of subject matter; and • the IP Rules, which applies in addition to the ROC 2021, for matters involving IP. 8. Other Relevant Forums/Procedures 8.1 The UPC or Other Forums No information has been provided in this jurisdiction concerning other forums/procedures relevant to life sciences & pharma IP litigation in Singapore.
7. Appeal 7.1 Timeframe to Appeal Decision
A party intending to appeal against a preliminary injunction decision must file an application to the appellate court for permission to appeal within 14 days of the decision. If permission to appeal is granted by the court, the party must file and serve on all par ‑ ties who have an interest in the appeal a Notice of Appeal within 14 days after the date of the decision granting permission. If the matter involves patents, the appellate court hearing the appeal will be the Court of Appeal. The appeal will be heard by way of a rehearing. The matter will not be heard de novo. There is no further right of appeal after the Court of Appeal. If the preliminary injunction is overturned on appeal, the preliminary injunction is lifted immediately from the date of the order. For the substantive suit, the parties have a right of appeal to the Court of Appeal. Appeals to the Court of Appeal are by way of a rehearing. The parties are entitled to appeal on all issues, including findings of facts. When filing the appeal, the party must therefore indicate whether it is appealing against the whole or part of the judgment or order. If the matter is bifurcated into two tranches on issues of validity and infringement, the parties will have a right to appeal the trial judge’s decision in each of these tranches. Procedurally, the matter will not move to the second tranche (assuming the patent is found to be valid) until the issues in the first tranche have been completely disposed of, including the exhaus ‑ tion of any appeals.
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