Singapore IP Office extends patent deadline relief, resumes fast-track programs

On August 12, 2026, Singapore's Intellectual Property Office made two significant moves to ease the path for companies and inventors protecting their intellectual property in the city-state. The office extended a temporary relief program by a full year and switched back on two fast-track examination services that had been paused.

The first change concerns patent applicants who need more time before submitting their work for official examination. Normally, Singapore law gives inventors 36 months from their filing date—or from an earlier priority date if they've filed elsewhere first—to request examination. If they want to push past that deadline, they pay S$200 per month, up to a maximum of 18 months of delay. The Intellectual Property Office had introduced a pilot program waiving those fees entirely, and now it's extending that relief by another year. Any patent with an examination deadline falling between September 1, 2024, and August 31, 2027, can request an 18-month extension without paying anything. Even applicants who've already received a shorter extension can ask for more time to reach the full 18-month window, still at no cost.

This matters most to applicants using the Patent Prosecution Highway, an international program that lets inventors fast-track their applications in multiple countries by relying on positive decisions from patent offices elsewhere. When an applicant uses the PPH route, they typically see their first official response much faster, face fewer rounds of back-and-forth with examiners, and have a better chance of approval. The extended deadline relief gives them breathing room to wait for those favorable outcomes abroad before committing to examination in Singapore.

The second announcement brings back two acceleration programs that had been temporarily closed to new applications. Starting September 1, 2026, the Intellectual Property Office will again accept requests under SG Patents Fast and SG Trade Marks Fast. These are premium services for applicants willing to pay extra fees in exchange for faster processing.

SG Patents Fast offers two tiers. Applicants can request a four-month track, receiving their first official response within four months of approval, or an eight-month track for a longer but still accelerated timeline. The program has some guardrails: the patent application cannot be a divisional application, the specification must contain 20 or fewer claims, and each entity—whether an individual or a company—can file no more than five acceleration requests per month. Once an application qualifies for acceleration, subsequent office actions also get expedited treatment. To use the program, applicants must submit their acceleration request together with their examination request and pay an additional fee on top of the standard examination charge.

SG Trade Marks Fast is simpler and faster. Applicants can expect their first examination report—or notice that their application has been published for opposition—within three to six weeks. Unlike the patent program, this one doesn't require applicants to have a related patent application pending, nor do they need to use pre-approved descriptions from the office's classification database. The only requirements are that the application be a national trademark (not a certification or collective mark) and that the acceleration request be filed at the moment of submission, with the appropriate fee. If an application covers multiple classes of goods or services, the acceleration automatically applies to all of them.

These moves signal the office's effort to reduce both the cost and the timeline for intellectual property protection in Singapore. By extending the fee waiver for patent deadline extensions and reopening the fast-track programs, the office is making it easier for inventors and companies to navigate the system on their own terms—whether they need more time to coordinate international filings or are willing to pay for speed.