The Genesis Illusion

Chapter 20

Officer Ho and Paul arrived at the Singapore IPO on Bras Basah Road, next to the Art Museum. Paul approached the information desk and Officer Ho took a seat in the lobby pulling out his smartphone to play a game while he was waiting.

"Hello my name is Paul Jacobs," Paul said. "I have an appointment to see Jason Klong. I'm from the United Nations Statistics Division in New York."

"Just a minute," the clerk said. "I believe he is expecting you."

The Singapore Intellectual Property Office houses the patent records for the country. The agency signed the Patent Cooperation Treaty, administered by the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), in 1996. Over 150 countries signing the treaty agreed to respect and enforce patent protection world-wide. The word patent, although specific to inventions and processes, has taken on a broader meaning to include trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property protections. Each of these, however, has its own regulations and restrictions.

The Singapore IPO sent copies of the three inventor's patents to the UN Statistics Division, as requested. Paul had already reviewed these documents in NY. These forms contained not only descriptions of the inventions but also contact information. This information was almost all he needed to apply his statistical method predicting intelligence of the inventors. I found almost everything I needed on the patent forms. The data that wasn't included I found on the internet. What I need to see is any information they may not have sent.

"Mr. Klong?" Paul said, shaking his hand and following him to his desk.

"Mr. Jacobs, I was expecting you. What can I do for you?"

"First, thank you for all the requested information you sent the UN Statistics Division about the three inventors."

"We want to cooperate with our international partners."

"Although the information was exactly what we asked for, I'd like to look at any other records, notes or even preliminary or provisional patent applications."

Mr. Klong acted slightly irritated. "We provided the information you asked for."

"Yes you did. Thank you. We didn't know what we needed until we saw the information you were kind enough to send us." I hope I'm applying enough grease to smooth out his frustration.

"I understand. Let's look in the database files." Mr. Klong worked and talked while sitting at his desk and looking at his laptop computer. Paul sat on the other side of the desk and couldn't see his screen. "Each of the patent applications is filed under a unique identification code. The archive information associated with that code is listed in the record. This same information can be searched on our computer database by name, but I find that less useful because so many people in Singapore have the same names. Let's first look at the earliest patent. That would be for Mr. Lim."

Paul looked confused because he couldn't see Mr. Klong's screen. "Oh, sorry, you can scoot your chair around so you can look over my shoulder," Mr. Klong said realizing Paul's problem. "The record lists the date and is the same information you received, but I see on this record that there was a provisional patent application filed about six months earlier. Let's see if we can pull that up? Here it is. You can see that the provisional application form includes only very basic information. It, however, establishes the patent date before the actual patent award."

"Just the name, address, and so on. A brief description of the invention, device, or process, only about a paragraph. There are few other lines here. One is the location of the invention. Usually that is listed as Singapore. Occasionally, more detailed information is provided. I see on this one that an address is listed. That's not completely unheard of, but somewhat rare."