Sufficiency of disclosure: New considerations under Singapore patent law

Sufficiency of disclosure is a cornerstone of patent law and is part of a “patent bargain” for providing a limited-term monopoly over an invention. In exchange, the inventor or patentee has to teach, in the patent specification, how to work or make the invention so that the public can learn from and eventually build on this knowledge. The Singapore Patents Act stipulates that a specification must disclose an invention in a manner which is clear and complete for the invention to be performed by a skilled person, and insufficient disclosure is a ground for patent revocation in Singapore. In IIa Technologies Pte Ltd v Element Six Technologies Ltd [2023] SGCA 5, the Court of Appeal clarified the requirements for sufficiency under Singapore patent law.