Intellectual property · Singapore
Trademark registration in Singapore
Singapore runs the region's fastest, most predictable trademark office, and for many groups it's where the regional IP should live. We search, file with IPOS, place the mark correctly in your structure, and watch the register so it stays yours.
Why register
What a registered mark gets you in Singapore
Singapore is first-to-file with a common-law footnote: an unregistered brand can sue for passing off, which means proving years of goodwill in court instead of showing a certificate. Registration decides ownership cleanly, with rights backdated to the filing date. Here is what the certificate gives you once it's yours.
The exclusive right to your name
Registration gives you the exclusive right to use the mark for your registered goods and services across Singapore, and the legal standing to stop anyone else using it or anything confusingly close: competitors, copycats, and the partner who decides the brand should be his.
The enforcement toolkit
Border enforcement notices with Singapore Customs, takedowns on Shopee, Lazada, Carousell, and TikTok Shop, and infringement claims before courts that move quickly all run on the certificate. With it, you are enforcing. Without it, you are writing letters nobody must answer.
The crown jewel of a holding structure
Many of our clients hold their regional brand in the Singapore company that owns their operating subsidiaries, licensing it down to Indonesia, Vietnam, or Thailand, with the licenses recorded at IPOS. At S$280 per class for ten years of protection, renewable forever, it's the cheapest asset in the holding company, and often the most valuable.
What can be registered
Almost anything that identifies you, if it's distinctive.
A registrable mark identifies your business rather than describing the product. Generic and purely descriptive terms are refused, and so are marks confusingly similar to existing registrations in your classes.
Word marksBrand names, company names, taglines, and letter or number marks, the most common filing.
Logos & devicesVisual symbols and graphic elements, registered as you use them.
Combined marksWords and graphics together, protecting the lock-up as a whole.
Shapes & 3D marksThe form of a product or its packaging, provided the shape is not functional.
Color marksSpecific colors or combinations, registrable where they have acquired distinctiveness in the market.
Sound & shape marksNon-traditional marks are registrable where they are distinctive and can be represented graphically, with 3D shapes and sounds the common cases.
Every application names the goods and services it covers, grouped under the Nice Classification's 45 classes, and one application can cover several classes. Singapore rewards careful drafting directly: a specification adopted entirely from IPOS's pre-approved Classification Database files at S$280 per class instead of S$380, and moves through examination with fewer queries. We draft from the database wherever your products allow it.
The process
How registration works
Five stages with IPOS, all through the Digital Hub, with the most predictable examiner in the region. Plan nine to twelve months from filing to certificate when nothing is contested, with your rights backdated to the filing date either way.
1
Search and registrability checkDays
We search IPOS's records and the Madrid designations for identical and confusingly similar marks in your classes, and assess the mark against Singapore's distinctiveness standards. If the mark has a problem, you find out now, for the cost of a search, rather than half a year in.
2
Filing through the Digital HubDays
We file Form TM4 with the mark, the classes, and the declaration of intent to use that Singapore requires at filing. The drafting decision happens here: a specification taken entirely from IPOS's pre-approved Classification Database locks the S$280 rate and a smoother examination. Foreign applicants need a Singapore address for service, which we provide, with nothing notarized.
3
Examination3–6 months
IPOS examines distinctiveness and conflicts with earlier marks and designations. The office's practice is published and consistent, which makes objections predictable and answerable; we respond on your behalf within the deadlines, since a missed response abandons the application.
4
Publication and opposition2 months
The accepted mark is published in the Trade Marks Journal, opening a two-month opposition window, extendable on request. Singapore handles oppositions in a particular way: IPOS actively steers parties toward mediation, and many disputes settle on terms rather than running to a hearing. We watch the window and handle the defense.
5
Registration and certificateOn approval
With the window closed or any opposition resolved, the mark registers and the electronic certificate issues, with no second fee. Protection runs ten years from the filing date, not the registration date, so the months of examination cost you nothing in coverage. What keeps it alive from here is worth reading twice.
The checklist
Key requirements for trademark registration in Singapore
The documents and details IPOS needs before the application can be filed. The list is short, nothing needs notarizing, and most clients send everything in one email.
- A clear representation of the mark. The logo file in high resolution, or the word mark exactly as you use it.
- What it covers. Your products or services, described in your own words; we map them to the Nice classes and, wherever possible, to IPOS's pre-approved Classification Database, which files cheaper and examines smoother.
- Applicant details. The full legal name and address of the entity that will own the mark, a decision worth a conversation where a holding structure is involved.
- A Singapore address for service. Foreign applicants need one; we provide it, and official notices land with people who act on them inside the deadlines. Nothing needs notarizing.
- Priority documents, only if applicable. Where you're claiming priority from an application filed abroad within the last six months.
Keeping it alive
No use declarations here. Registrations still die in four ways
Singapore asks for a declaration of intent to use at filing and nothing periodic after it, which lulls owners into treating the certificate as permanent. It isn't, and the failure modes are predictable.
Missed renewalsProtection runs ten years from the filing date. Renewal files within the six months before expiry, with a six-month grace period after at a surcharge; IPOS sends reminders, but the responsibility stays with the owner. A lapse opens a gap, and in a first-to-file system, gaps get filed into.
Five years of non-useA mark unused in Singapore for an uninterrupted five years can be revoked on application under Section 22. Keeping dated evidence of use (sales, listings, packaging, campaigns) is cheap insurance against a claim that otherwise turns into archaeology.
Unwatched publicationsThe opposition window is two months from publication in the Trade Marks Journal. If nobody is watching it for you, a confusingly similar mark passes the examiner once and registers; stopping it afterwards means invalidation proceedings instead of a two-page opposition.
Unrecorded licenses and stale recordsA trademark license should be written and recorded with IPOS for full effect against third parties, which matters precisely in the holding-company structures where the Singapore entity licenses the brand to operating subsidiaries. Assignments and address changes recorded keep the certificate enforceable and the renewals smooth.
Our service builds all four into the engagement: the renewal calendared a decade out, use evidence kept with the file, a watch on the journal, and the licenses and records kept current as your structure changes.
What it costs
IPOS charges one fee, up front: S$280 per class where the specification comes entirely from the pre-approved Classification Database, S$380 where it doesn't, covering the application through to registration with no separate certificate fee. Renewals run per class under the current fee schedule, with surcharges in the grace period. Emerhub's fee for the search, filing, and prosecution is quoted on request per class, with office actions, oppositions, and renewals quoted as they arise.
Why Emerhub
Filed by the team that's already here.
Already on the ground
The same Singapore team that sets up holding companies and runs their compliance files your trademark. For most of our clients the mark and the structure are one conversation: which entity owns it, who licenses it, and how the regional filings hang off the Singapore registration.
A straight answer before you spend
If the search shows your mark is weak, descriptive, or already taken, we tell you before you pay filing fees, with options: adjust the mark, add distinctive elements, or challenge what's blocking you.
We keep it alive
Many providers file and disappear. Singapore registrations are won and lost at the renewal, the five-year use rule, the two-month opposition window, and the unrecorded license, so ours come with the calendar and the watch built in.
Common questions
Singapore trademark FAQs
Specific questions about registering and keeping a mark in Singapore.
Does registering my company protect my brand name?
No. The company name registered with ACRA only stops someone from registering an identical company name; it gives no trademark rights. Your brand needs its own IPOS registration, and until it has one, anyone can file for it, including your distributor.
How long does registration take?
Nine to twelve months from filing to certificate when nothing is contested: examination in three to six months, the two-month publication window, then registration with no further fee. Either way, protection runs from the filing date, not the registration date, so the examination months cost you nothing in coverage, and the right answer to "when should I file" is almost always "before launch."
What does it cost?
One official fee, paid at filing: S$280 per class where the goods come entirely from IPOS's pre-approved Classification Database, S$380 where you need your own wording, with no separate certificate fee afterwards. Our fee covers the search, the filing, and the prosecution to certificate, quoted per class; contested matters are quoted as they arise. Schedule a call with your mark and product list and we'll give you the exact figure.
Someone already registered my brand. What can I do?
It depends where their filing stands. If it's within the two-month publication window, we oppose. If it's registered, the routes are invalidation proceedings, a revocation application once the mark has sat unused for five uninterrupted years, or, where you genuinely traded here first, a passing-off claim, valuable, expensive, and no substitute for having filed first. Negotiated purchase and coexistence are also real options, and IPOS's mediation framework makes settlements faster here than in most of the region. We assess which route fits before you spend on any of them.
Should the mark be owned by my Singapore holding company?
Often, yes. Where Singapore sits above your operating companies, holding the brand there means one strong registration in a stable jurisdiction, written licenses to the subsidiaries recorded with IPOS, and a clean base for Madrid filings across the region. It also concentrates value in the entity investors and acquirers actually buy. The decision interacts with your tax and corporate structure, which is why we treat the mark and the structure as one conversation.
What is the Nice Classification, and can I file multiple classes?
The international system that groups all goods and services into 45 classes. Your registration protects the mark in the classes you file, so the class choice defines the protection. Singapore allows multi-class applications, with the official fee counted per class, and rewards specifications drawn entirely from IPOS's pre-approved database with the lower S$280 rate and a smoother examination.
What happens if someone opposes my application?
They have two months from publication, extendable on request. You respond with a counter-statement, and from there Singapore does something its neighbors don't: IPOS actively steers the parties toward mediation, and many oppositions settle on coexistence or amended specifications rather than running to a hearing. We prepare the defense and tell you honestly when settling beats fighting.
Do I have to prove I'm using the mark?
You declare an intent to use at filing, and nothing periodic after that. The use rule bites differently: a mark unused for five uninterrupted years can be revoked on application, so the protection is only as strong as your evidence of use. We keep dated proof (sales records, listings, packaging, campaigns) with the file, so a revocation claim meets a wall instead of a gap.
Can I use the Madrid System instead of filing locally?
Both directions work, and Singapore is unusually good at the outbound one. Designations into Singapore are examined under the same rules. Going outward, a Singapore registration is a strong base mark for Madrid filings across Asia, which is the default strategy for Singapore-headquartered groups expanding regionally, and exactly the setup where the holding company should own the mark.
How does renewal work?
The registration renews every ten years, counted from the filing date. The renewal files within the six months before expiry, with a six-month grace period after it at a surcharge; IPOS sends reminders, but the responsibility stays with the owner, and miss both windows and the mark lapses. We calendar yours the day the certificate issues.
Protecting a brand in Singapore?
Talk to our Singapore team
A free, no-obligation consultation: thirty minutes with our Singapore team to check your mark, settle the classes and the owning entity, and map the filing, including what to do if someone got there first.
Phone / WhatsApp+60 17 684 9718
Office105 Cecil Street, #18-08
The Octagon
Singapore 069534
The Octagon
Singapore 069534