Intellectual property (IP) competition with funding of
up to US$500,000 for winners
– IPHatch® opens in Singapore to attract tech start-ups to grow IP portfolios
and create the next Asian unicorns
– Jointly organised by Piece Future and IPI Singapore, and supported by Nokia
and Panasonic, it aims to attract local and global start-ups to take part
Singapore, February 4, 2020
The Singapore government’s 10-year IP Hub Masterplan to groom Singapore into a
global intellectual property (IP) hub will get another shot in the arm with the latest
edition of the IPHatch® Challenge.
IPHatch®, which is jointly organised by Piece Future Pte Ltd (PF) and IPI Singapore,
is an open-innovation competition looking for start-ups and entrepreneurs to
leverage on IP to provide scalable solutions for businesses.
The competition is now open for submissions. Applications will close on March 15,
2020.
Founded in Singapore in 2017 by homegrown entrepreneur, Mr Jason Loh, Piece
Future is Asia’s first IP investment bank to help small medium enterprises (SMEs)
and start-ups leverage on the power of IPs in their journey towards achieving global
success. Mr Loh believes the IP marketplace plays an increasingly important role to
boost innovation and drive business growth which in turn create better and higher
value jobs for people in Singapore.
IPI, a subsidiary of Enterprise Singapore (ESG) catalyses and enables enterprises to
grow their businesses through innovation. It works with enterprises to source for
technologies locally and abroad and facilitates technology partnerships to bring new
and innovative products and services to the market.
According to the IP Masterplan Update, IP activities are expected to contribute a
value add of at least S$1.5 billion to the Singapore economy in the next five years.
Mr Loh, Founder and CEO of Piece Future, said, “We want to encourage
entrepreneurship and assist promising SMEs and start-ups to turn their ideas into
assets. Inventions or brands have little value without IP rights. IPHatch® is a unique
initiative that offers patents from Big Tech companies to attract start-ups, businesses
and inventors to showcase their innovations, and eventually register their IP assets in Singapore. By doing so, we can grow the value of our IPs and build Singapore into a leading IP centre – not just as a repository of unique IPs but one which usher in higher paying jobs and spur further innovation. We also want to help inventors and start-ups’ to commercialise their dreams to become the next Asian unicorns.”
Studies have shown that countries with the strongest IP protections employ large portions of their workforce in higher paying IP-intensive industries. In fact, income per capita is thirteen times greater in countries with strong IP protections than those with weak protections.
[Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenzomontanari/2017/09/19/will-singapore-be-the-next-intellectual-property-hub/#2dc7860c7da4]
