Why the Ministry of Defence is killing Singapore’s ambition of becoming an IP hub

Since the publication of this article, Tech in Asia has received notice that the following statements made by Dr. Ting are false:

(i) MINDEF had knowingly infringed his Singapore Patent 113446 with the intent to subsequently apply to revoke his patent upon his legal challenge; and

(ii) MINDEF had deliberately delayed the court proceedings as a “war of attrition.”

For the truth of the matter, please refer to MINDEF’s statement at https://www.facebook.com/notes/cyberpioneer/false-allegations-against-mindef-in-the-patent-infringement-suit-by-mobilestats/10153559226104535

“This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.” What American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr said back in the early 1900s is as applicable today as ever. Dr. Ting Choon Meng, inventor of a mobile medical station called the Station With Immediate First-Aid Treatment (SWIFT) vehicle, will surely agree with this sentiment, given that the patent rights to his invention are on the verge of being revoked following a drawn-out court case with Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (MINDEF).

The SWIFT vehicle was invented by Ting and his partners in 2001, following which he applied for – and successfully obtained – patent rights in several countries and regions, one of which was Singapore. His application to the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) was approved in 2005.

The court case first arose in 2012 when Ting and his partner Dr. Mak Koon Hou sued MINDEF for copying their SWIFT vehicle, which was produced by the latter’s vendor Syntech Engineers. Unlike the Singapore Civil Defence Force, who used the vehicles in 2004 and paid the duo royalties, MINDEF skipped this step entirely and brought it to the public stage in a National Day Parade in 2011, where Ting spotted the vehicle.

What came next was two years of legal back-and-forth. According to Ting, MINDEF had lawyers from the Attorney-General of Singapore and the Wong and Leow LLC fighting the case for them, and they “kept delaying the case, claiming their witness was not available.” As the legal fees accumulated, Ting eventually could not bear the costs and dropped the case in January 2014.

Here, MINDEF turned the tables on Ting. Their terms: he was to drop all claims to intellectual property and surrender his patent for the SWIFT vehicle in Singapore and the seven other countries the patent is registered in. In addition, Ting was to pay for MINDEF’s legal costs too – Wong and Leow LLC’s bill would come up to about S$580,000 (US$464,000).

A long way to go

This development is very worrying for the future of entrepreneurs in Singapore, especially in light of the country’s 10-year master plan to become Asia’s intellectual property hub. Clearly, there remain several loopholes in the system that require mending.