There has been a steady rise in the number of women brand owners and inventors in Singapore according to findings from studies1 released by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). There was a similar rise in the proportion of new women entrepreneurs, reflecting greater participation by women in IP management and innovation.
Between 2016 and 2022, the proportion of women among brand owners that registered trade marks increased from 17.7% to 23.4% and the proportion of women entrepreneurs rose from 17.9% to 24.9%. The share of patents with at least one women inventor also increased from 21.6% to 34.0% between 2000 to 2021.
The findings from the “Trade Mark, Entrepreneurship and Gender in Singapore” study were released by IPOS in conjunction with World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD) event today. This year’s theme, ‘Women and IP: Accelerating Innovation and Creativity’, celebrates women creators and entrepreneurs around the world for their ground-breaking achievements. WIPD is celebrated annually by 193 member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to raise awareness of IP and its role in encouraging innovation and creativity.
The event this morning was graced by Ms Sun Xueling, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Social and Family Development.
Said Ms Sun, “It is heartening to see more brand owners and women inventors in Singapore but there still remains a disparity between men and women seeking IP protection. IP plays an important role in transforming ideas into assets and as we celebrate the new products and services women help to bring to the marketplace and society, more also needs to be done to help women use the IP system to protect their work. I hope today’s activities would inspire and encourage everyone to consider the crucial role that IP can play in facilitating your journey on innovation and creativity.”
The highlight of the event held at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Singapore Office, was a panel discussion comprising women innovators in Singapore. The panel included Dr Sandhya Sriram, Group CEO and Co-founder of Shiok Meats, a local business making waves with their cultivated cell-based crustaceans; Ms Jamie Lim, CEO, Scanteak Singapore and Ms Lee Yun Qin, Senior Industrial Designer, Procter & Gamble.
Dr Sandhya Sriram shared on how Shiok Meats leveraged IP to grow her business, “Shiok Meats filed a patent to protect its technology to establish crustacean cell lines and produce cultivated crustacean meats for food application, and a patent to produce crustacean seasoning from nutrient media used to grow crustacean calls. Those patent applications were instrumental in the company’s fundraising efforts, which yielded USD 30 million since Shiok Meats’ inception2.
As a nod to enterprising and innovative women in Singapore, IPOS has recently featured women innovators Trailblazers #WomeninInnovation, lauding women across industries who have made an impact with their innovations.
For more information on the panellists, and profiles of the women Trailblazers #WomeninInnovation, click here.
About IPOS
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) helps businesses use IP and intangible assets to grow. We are committed to building Singapore into an international hub for intangible assets and IP to drive Singapore’s future growth. We are a government agency under the Ministry of Law.
www.ipos.gov.sg
1 The findings from the “Trade Mark, Entrepreneurship and Gender in Singapore” study were released by IPOS in conjunction with World Intellectual Property Day (WIPD) on 26 April 2023. Results on share of patents by at least one female inventor were based on a prior study on women inventorship in Singapore (Presentation slides can be found at https://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/ipsdm under section The Innovation Gender Gap).
2 Source: IP advantage, WIPO.
