No, an idea of a new invention alone cannot be patented. To qualify for patent protection, an invention has to be applied to a product or process and has to fulfil other criteria such as being new, involving an inventive step and be capable of industrial application.

To file a patent application in Singapore, you have to file Patents Form 1 (2004)/(PF 1[2004]) together with the prescribed filing fee of S$160.00. Your application should include a set of the specification of your invention, i.e. the description, a claim(s) and a drawing(s) (if any), and an abstract of your invention.

Applicants are required to furnish to the Registrar an address for service in Singapore. This is the address to which all correspondence from the Registry will be sent.

All Patent forms are available at the IPOS counter and downloadable here.

The application process involves the following steps:-
a) date of filing check and preliminary examination
b) publication of application
c) search and examination*
d) grant*
* requests for these are initiated by the applicants.

To read more about the application process, please click here.

In Singapore, whilst our Patent Act and Rules do not specifically refer to "provisional patent applications", they do allow for a date of filing to be accorded to a patent application without any patent claim(s) being filed with it, notwithstanding the fact that the patent application is incomplete until one or more patent claim(s) is or are furnished. Such Applications WITHOUT Claim(s) (hereafter called "Aw/oC") can be seen as "provisional". This Aw/oC approach would be attractive to some applicants who are not yet ready to furnish any patent claims at the time of filing their application.

Upon filing an Aw/oC, the applicant must furnish one or more patent claims with the Registry of Patents within the prescribed period of 12 months from the date of filing. When this occurs, the Aw/oC is "converted" into a complete patent application with claim(s), and it can then proceed further in the application process. The date of filing accorded to the Aw/oC is retained even after "conversion" as it is still the same application [albeit with claim(s) after "conversion"]. This is significant as the term of a patent begins from its date of filing. In the event that no patent claims are furnished within the period prescribed, the Aw/oC shall be treated as having been abandoned.

If an Aw/oC is the first filing of the invention in question, the applicant may decide, within 12 months from the date of filing of that Aw/oC, to file an Application WITH CLAIM(s) (hereafter called "AWC") in a Paris Convention or WTO country for the same invention and claim priority based on the "Aw/oC". In such an application, the date of filing accorded to the AWC is not that of the Aw/oC, the applicant benefits from the priority claim based on the "Aw/oC" application and the patent term of 20 years starts from the date of filing of the "AWC", provided the legal requirements are met.

If the invention was displayed in an international exhibition, the disclosure will be disregarded if you:-
(a) state, on filing the patent application, that the invention has been so dislayed.
(b) within 4 months from the date of filing, file a certificate from the authority responsible for the exhibition.
(c) file the patent application within 12 months from the date of display in the international exhibition.

If you want to find out whether a particular exhibition is in the list of international exhibitions recognised for this purpose, please visit this website at www.bie-paris.org.