SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Tony Yeo, Meryl Koh, Rozalynne Asmali and Javier Yeo, Drew & Napier LLC
5. Relief Available for Patent Infringement 5.1 Preliminary Injunctive Relief
5.2 Final Injunctive Relief Generally, final injunctions are prayed for in the claimant’s Statement of Claim. While the court retains discretion as to whether a final injunction should be granted, if the court eventually finds that the patent in the suit has been infringed, the court will generally grant the final injunction. The standard form of final injunction is one which restrains the defendant “from making, disposing of, offering to dispose of, using, importing and/or keeping whether for disposal or otherwise prod - ucts which infringe the patent in issue, and/or using or offering for use in Singapore processes which infringe the patent in issue”. Final injunctions are enforceable from the date the order is made. A breach of the order will entitle the claimant to commence enforcement proceedings and contempt of court proceed - ings, which may include a custodial sentence for the directors of the defendant company against whom the final injunction was ordered. Unlike an interim injunction, there is no require - ment for the patent proprietor to give an under - taking as to damages or to pay a bond before it can enforce the final injunction. An appeal does not operate as an automatic stay of the final injunction. The defendant must file an application for a stay pending appeal, and in so doing, the defendant must convince the court that if a stay is not granted, it will nullify the appeal. For example, if the injunction covers the whole of the defendant’s business, and the defendant will no longer be able to finance the appeal if the injunction is in place, the defendant may be able to convince the court that a stay should be granted.
See 1.3 Preliminary Injunction Proceedings . It is not common to apply for an interim injunc - tion for patent cases involving pharmaceutical patents or health products in view of the patent- linkage scheme, which gives the patent propri - etor a statutory right to, in effect, a qua-timet injunction of 30 months the moment the patent proprietor files a patent infringement suit against the generic. In exchange for obtaining an interim injunction, the claimant may be required to undertake to the court to compensate the defendant in the event that his/her claim fails and the interim injunction has caused the defendant loss. Interim injunctions are enforceable from the date the order is made. A breach of the order will enti - tle the claimant to commence enforcement pro - ceedings and contempt of court proceedings, which may include a custodial sentence for the directors of the defendant company against whom the interim injunction was ordered. An appeal does not operate as an automatic stay of the interim injunction. The defendant must file an application for a stay pending appeal, and in so doing, the defendant must convince the court that if a stay is not granted, it will nullify the appeal. It is in practice difficult to convince the court of this since an interim injunction is usually a prohibitory injunction rather than a mandatory injunction, unless there is a time limitation of the defendant to do the act which is covered by the interim injunction and the expiry of the said time limitation will cause irreparable prejudice to the defendant should the defendant not act.
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