Accelerate & Save: IPOS’ PPH Pilot Fee Refund Initiative

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The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (“IPOS”) recently announced enhancements to its Patent Prosecution Highway (“PPH”) programmes, which includes a pilot fee refund initiative (“Pilot Initiative”).

 

IPOS PPH Programmes​

The PPH is an international cooperation framework that allows applicants to accelerate patent examination in Singapore by leveraging the examination results from various intellectual property (“IP”) offices. At present, Singapore has established 33 PPH-partner offices, including the IP offices of China, Japan, the United States, Korea, Malaysia, France, Saudi Arabia and Europe.  As part of the enhancements, the IPOS-Saudi Arabia for Intellectual Property (SAIP) PPH Programme has also been extended indefinitely with effect from 12 September 2025.

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Pilot Initiative

To better support businesses and enable greater access to its PPH programmes, IPOS has launched the Pilot Initiative, which takes effect from 15 September 2025.  

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The Pilot Initiative offers the following benefits for innovators and businesses:

• 30% Refund on Official Fees: Applicable to PPH requests filed between 15 September 2025 and 31 December 2027

 

• Accelerated Examination: 

  • First office action within 10 months

  • Increased likelihood of patent grant (~94% grant rate in Singapore)

  • Fewer office actions (~70% granted at first office action)
     

To illustrate the benefits of the Pilot Initiative, the table below summarises the existing and new PPH search and examination options for a Singapore patent application with 15 claims as an example (with no excess claims fees).  For more details, refer to IPOS Circular No.4/2025.