SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Tony Yeo, Meryl Koh, Rozalynne Asmali and Javier Yeo, Drew & Napier LLC
8. Other Relevant Forums/ Procedures 8.1 The UPC or Other Forums
If parties attempt mediation, the court and/or IPOS will, at the request of the parties, gener - ally allow a stay of proceedings pending the outcome of the mediation. A failure or refusal to genuinely consider ADR options may lead to an adverse costs order being made against the refusing party.
No information has been provided in this juris - diction concerning other forums/procedures relevant to life sciences & pharma IP litigation in Singapore. 9. Alternative Dispute Resolution 9.1 ADR Options Under Order 5 of the ROC 2021, the parties are obliged to consider ADR options before com - mencing a claim. IP disputes are capable of being resolved by arbitration as between parties to that dispute under Singapore law, although this is not a com - mon dispute resolution option for patent matters as it requires both parties to agree to refer the matter to arbitration. Mediation is another possible, and more com - mon, ADR option. The parties can request to refer the dispute to mediation at any time before the case has been decided. In general, the court and/or IPOS will ask parties to consider ADR options such as mediation to resolve the dis - pute. This is especially when Order 5 of the ROC 2021 requires the parties to attempt an amicable resolution to the dispute. There are various mediation service providers in Singapore. Apart from the Singapore Media - tion Centre and the Singapore International Mediation Centre that handles general media - tion disputes, the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Centre is a global mediation provider that specialises in IP disputes.
10. Settlement/Antitrust 10.1 Considerations and Scrutiny
The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore has released guidelines on the licens - ing of SEPs on FRAND terms. Where an owner of an SEP has a dominant position in the market, its refusal to license its SEP on FRAND terms to any application for a licence may give rise to com - petition concerns under Section 47 of the Com - petition Act 2004. However, there is no known decision in Singapore regarding SEPs yet. Further, the life sciences industry has not had to deal with SEPs yet. Group claims are available pursuant to Order 4 Rule 6 of the ROC 2021, where numerous per - sons that have a common interest in proceed - ings may sue or be sued as a group, with one or more of them representing the group. For claims initiated by a group of persons, all members in the group must give their consent in writing to the representative to represent all of them in the action and they must be included in a list attached to the originating claim or the originat - ing application. Where there is a class of per - sons and all or any member of the class cannot be ascertained or cannot be found, the Court 11. Collective Redress 11.1 Group Claims
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