Singapore grants Alibaba patent – which usually takes 2 to 4 years – in record speed of 3 months

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) said on Wednesday (Aug 28) that it has granted an artificial intelligence (AI) patent to Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group in a record time of three months. The patent was granted under IPOS' Accelerated Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). The average time needed for such patents is usually two to four years, IPOS said. The hope is that with the expedited application-to-grant process under AI2, innovators can bring their AI inventions faster to the global market through Singapore. This could be a crucial development in Singapore's bid to be the intellectual property (IP) hub for cutting-edge technologies.