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Singapore High Court's First Decision On Shape Marks 
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 - 12:00 AM

In Singapore's first case involving shape marks, Justice Andrew Phang in the case of Nation Fittings (M) Sdn Bhd v Oystertec Plc, [2005] SGHC 225 decided that trade marks registered prior to 15 January 1999 as two-dimensional marks cannot be treated as three-dimensional shape marks under the Singapore Trademarks Act.

Prior to the enactment of the present Trade Marks Act (Cap 332, 2005 Rev Ed) (“TMA” or “the present Act”) in 1998, which came into force on 15 January 1999, such (shape) marks could not be registered. Only two-dimensional marks could be registered. However, since the enactment of the present Act, shape marks may be registered.

A key issue in the case is whether the transitional provisions contained in the Third Schedule of the TMA operated to render or "convert" the two-dimensional registered marks into three-dimensional (shape) marks under the present Act. The Learned Judge in his judgment dated 15 December 2005 held that it did not.

Thus shape mark owners who want to protect their shape marks will have to make a new application under the present Act.