Patents are a set of exclusive rights given to an inventor for his discovery.

Under the plan, if one office has already done the legwork in confirming that no one else has a similar product, the other country's patent office will be able to accept the statement without having to do another search.

This is likely to reduce the amount of time taken to file patents, which at the moment can take years.

Director-General of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (Ipos) Liew Woon Yin said that "applicants will see an immediate benefit in the expedited processing of their patent applications...which will result in quicker patent protection".

It is part of the larger intellectual property framework the Singapore Government wants to put in place, in order to attract more scientists, inventors or companies to work in the Republic.

With the Patent Prosecution Highway initiative in place, Singapore joins a network of patent offices worldwide to help "deal with the backlog" of applications, an Ipos release said.

More details of the one-year project can be accessed at www.ipos.gov.sg.