Category Archives: General

WIPO sets up S’pore office

Posted on 28 Jul 2009 | Comments Off on WIPO sets up S’pore office

THE World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) will open its Arbitration and Mediation Centre in Singapore in 2010.

An agreement to pave the way for the establishment of the centre was signed by Dr Francis Gurry, WIPO’s director general, and Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs on Tuesday morning.

To be located in Maxwell Chambers, Singapore’s international dispute resolution centre will focus on promoting alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services in the Asia Pacific Region.

As the only WIPO Center in the region, it will provide training and advice on procedures such as arbitration, mediation and expert determination, and will administer and facilitate hearings in cases conducted under the WIPO Rules in Singapore.

The centre’s Singapore office also aims to cater to regional needs and to make WIPO’s experience and expertise in intellectual property ADR more accessible in the Asia Pacific Region.

Said Mr Shanmugam: ‘The expansion of WIPO’s presence here bears testimony to Singapore’s commitment to the protection of intellectual assets and our support of WIPO’s efforts to develop the international IP regime. Continue reading →

Comments Off on WIPO sets up S’pore office

Posted in General

Tagged

The cybertect

Posted on 28 Jul 2009 | Comments Off on The cybertect

FED UP with the view outside your apartment window?

Fancy being transported to the buzz of a New York street instead?

If you live in one of James Law’s “intelligent” apartments, you would be able to – literally – change the view outside your window to one from a variety of cities – in real time.

Flashback to the first day of the new millennium, when James, an architect, announced he wasn’t going to be an architect any more.

The then 30-year-old wanted to be known as a “cybertect”.

James had thought long and hard about where he and architecture were headed, and decided it was as good a time to launch his vision for the future.

“Cybertecture”, the chairman and chief cybertect of the eponymously-named firm tells me, is a merging of two words – cyber (to mean new innovation) and tecture (to mean the fabric of our world).

“‘Cybertecture’ is a new way that we will design our world, whether it is buildings, cities, technologies, systems, communities … (to) bring out the best in human wisdom and ingenuity for the betterment of mankind in the 21st century,” says James, 39.

This means the embracing of “clever and wise” technologies, he says, pointing – as an example – to the PAD Tower in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates which his firm James Law Cybertecture International is building. Continue reading →

Comments Off on The cybertect

Posted in General

Tagged