Ipos and Deloitte to nurture 100 companies through IP commercialisation

SINGAPORE—Local companies in the biomedical and healthcare, manufacturing and engineering and deep tech sectors will be targeted in the latest drive to develop innovative enterprises through intellectual property (IP) commercialisation. The announcement was made at the IP Week @ SG 2017, an annual event that brings together the world’s IP thought leaders, legal experts and innovative companies.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) and Deloitte Southeast Asia Financial Advisory Services on Tuesday (Aug 29) signed an agreement to jointly drive the growth of innovative enterprises and enhance the Republic’s position as an IP and innovation hub.

Through the partnership, Ipos and Deloitte will target to build a strong base of 100 growth enterprises that are innovation-driven, and groom them to become future global market leaders.

Mr Daren Tang, chief executive of Ipos, said, “The enterprises of today are increasingly built around IP and other intangible assets like know-how, data and digital platforms. As Asian economies develop, we are seeing more and more companies where a significant share of their enterprise value is in their intangible assets, including IP.”

At the enterprise level, Ipos and Deloitte will help companies to commercialise their IP and other intangible assets for business growth, by bringing their products and services to the market and providing access to a network of business partners and financial investors.

Selected companies will be given exposed technology trends to help them make strategic decisions for investment and research and development. Ipos and Deloitte will also facilitate connection to emerging and disruptive technologies and start-up communities.

At the ecosystem level, the partnership seeks to build Singapore as an innovation hub for companies to establish their operations here, and use the city-state as a gateway to high-growth markets in Asia and beyond. Supported by a world-class IP regime, the innovation ecosystem aims to encourage innovative enterprises to monetise their ideas and IP through easy access to market opportunities, technology and commercialisation expertise, strategic advisory and services and global connections.

“Enterprises will be able to tap on our global networks and professional expertise to gain a deeper access into technology, market and growth capital. We also hope to build a conducive and progressive environment that will encourage more of such foreign enterprises to establish their operations in Singapore and develop Singapore as a gateway to the global markets,” said Mr Keoy Soo Earn, executive director and regional managing partner of Deloitte Southeast Asia’s Financial Advisory practice.

At the opening ceremony of IP Week @ SG 2017, six local innovative enterprises were honoured with the Wipo-Ipos IP Awards jointly organised by Ipos and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo). Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Law and Home Affairs, alongside Mr Yoshiyuki Takagi, assistant director-general of Wipo, and Dr Stanley Lai, chairman of Ipos, presented the awards to the recipients.

The awards recognise the outstanding achievements of local enterprises that have successfully grown their businesses through the effective use of IP as well as the strategic management of the technologies, brands and content that they create and own. The winners include menswear lifestyle brand Benjamin Barker, security agency Concorde Security, sustainable building supplier Pacific Forest Products, healthcare bioanalysis company Invitrocue, engineering firm Cyclect Holdings, and micro optics firm Heptagon.