Protection of Intellectual Property Rights of Vendors Who Use Government Procurement Portal

Ms Janice Koh asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance if there are provisions in place to prevent the infringement of intellectual property rights of vendors, such as designers and event planners, by Government agencies and officers who use the GeBIZ system to procure creative or design concepts for projects.

Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam: Government agencies, like any other entities, are required to respect the laws of the land. In this regard, they are to comply with Intellectual property (IP) laws to respect IP rights of other parties when they carry out their work.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), with the Ministry of Law, has made available to public officers a handbook 5 setting out IP Management Guidelines for the Public Sector in Singapore. In addition, courses on IP rights and IP management are available to public officers. These courses also raise public officers' awareness to the potential liability arising from infringement or non-conformance to IP-related obligations.

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