Singapore will host the Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a Revised Trademark Law Treaty in March next year, according to official sources on Wednesday.

It will be the first time for an Asian country to host a World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) diplomatic conference as most of such meetings were held in European cities and two in Washington DC and Nairobi in the past, said a statement by the Ministry of Law and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).

"The aim of the conference is to update the existing 1994 Trademark Law Treaty to bring it in line with the technological advances of the past decade and to simplify legal requirements for trademark licensing," the statement said.

Some 650 intellectual property (IP) policy makers and experts from all member states of the WIPO are expected to attend the meeting.

The event will be a milestone in Singapore's efforts to become a center of excellence for IP development and business, according to Liew Woon Yin, Director-General of the IPOS.

Singapore has upgraded its IP regime and supporting infrastructure in recent years and local trademark applications rose from some 21,000 in 2003 to more than 23,000 in 2004.

Source: Xinhua