Recently, Singapore introduced a new post-grant review procedure under which anyone can file a request for review of a granted patent. The request can be made by the patent owner himself or by a third party, and the request can also be filed in the name of an agent to keep the identity of the actual requester confidential.
The process is ex parte, which means that once the request is filed, only the patent owner is involved in the patent process, and the petitioner has no role other than the opportunity to correct some formal issues in the request.
The new procedure provides a relatively inexpensive way to challenge patents granted in Singapore. However, since the challenged party in the post-grant review procedure has a short time to respond to the examiner's written opinion, and the opportunity to respond and amend is limited, receiving a request for post-grant review will be a huge undertaking for the patent owner. challenge.
