SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Yvonne Tang, Lim Siau Wen and Ruby Tham, Drew & Napier LLC
ably incurred should be resolved in favour of the paying party. Guidelines found in the Supreme Court Practice Directions 2021 provide a general indication on the quantum of costs awards in proceedings, including intellectual property cases. However, the precise amount of costs awarded remains at the discretion of the court, and the court may depart from the amounts set in the guidelines. A successful party’s costs may be reduced or disallowed where the successful party: • is partially successful in establishing any claim or issue (leading to an unnecessary increase in the amount of time taken, costs or complexity of proceedings); • acted unreasonably; • failed to discharge its duty to consider ami - cable resolution of the dispute or to make an offer of amicable resolution; or • failed to comply with any order of court, any relevant pre-action protocol or any practice direction. 10.4 Ex Parte Relief In general, all applications for relief should be heard with both parties present. In urgent cases, injunctive relief may be sought without notice to the defendant. The application made to court must be supported by an affida - vit stating the urgency and explaining why the defendant should not be informed about the application and the merits of the application. Paragraph 71 of the Supreme Court Practice Directions 2021 prescribes that notice must be given to the other concerned parties. A minimum of two hours’ notice of the application must be given to the other concerned parties before the
hearing, except in cases of extreme urgency or with the permission of the court. The notice should inform the other parties of the date, time and place fixed for the hearing of the application and the nature of the relief sought. If possible, a copy of the originating process, the summons without notice or the originating application with - out notice (if no originating process has been issued yet) and supporting affidavit(s) should be given to each of the other parties in draft form as soon as they are ready to be filed in court. Notice need not be given to other concerned parties if doing so would defeat the purpose of the ex parte application (such as applications for search orders or injunctions prohibiting the disposal of assets). 10.5 Customs Seizures of Counterfeits or Parallel Imports The Singapore Customs is empowered by bor - der enforcement measures provisions found in the Trade Marks Act and the Copyright Act to seize counterfeit goods (not being goods in transit) that are imported into, or to be exported from, Singapore. These powers of seizure may be exercised: • upon request of the registered trade mark proprietor or copyright owner or their respec - tive licensees, by way of a written notification to the Singapore Customs, providing suf - ficient information to identify the infringing goods and the time and place of expected importation and exportation; or • ex officio by a customs officer – when the customs officer is acting ex-officio, their power of seizure extends to goods-in-transit provided that these goods are consigned to a person with a commercial or physical pres - ence in Singapore.
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