IPOS and VICPA team up to empower Singapore’s creative professionals

Imagine seeing your face at every bus stop in Singapore, advertising a product for years after your contract ended.

This is a real risk for many creative talents in Singapore, including people like Laura Kee, an actor, host and voice-over artist with 16 years of experience.

“For performers in Singapore, our image, voice, and videos are crucial. They represent us as talents. If someone misuses our image, it’s a big problem. It can also cost us future opportunities,” Ms Kee explained.

She also pointed out a big challenge creatives face – there are currently no clear rules to protect performers’ rights. This makes it hard for them to safeguard their work and get fair pay.

“It’s unclear how we can protect our image, video, and voice. We don’t know how to ensure we’re protected or paid fairly when our work is used,” she said.

Actress, emcee and VO artist Laura Kee

A new partnership to address these issues

It is these hurdles that a new partnership between the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and the Visual, Audio, Creative Content Professionals Association (Singapore) (VICPA) aims to address.

On 28 August 2024, during IP Week @ SG 2024, IPOS and VICPA signed an agreement to enhance intellectual property (IP) awareness and proficiency among creators in Singapore.

The three-year collaboration aims to empower Singapore’s growing pool of freelance creative professionals by providing them with the knowledge and tools to better protect, manage, and monetise their intellectual property.

This initiative comes at a crucial time, as a recent IPOS study revealed that one in five jobs created in Singapore between 2017 and 2021 were from IP-rights-intensive industries, including those within the creative sector, with employees in these sectors earning 9.2 per cent more than those in organisations that did not use IP intensively.

Key aspects of the collaboration include:

• promoting IP understanding among freelance creative professionals and youth through awareness programmes and campaigns,
• assisting VICPA members in extracting and enhancing IP value from their works, and
• equipping creators with skills in IP licensing, negotiation, and commercialisation of creative works.

NTUC Freelancers and Self-Employed Unit (U FSE) Director Jean See emphasised the importance of this partnership.

She said: “This afternoon’s signing formalises VICPA’s collaboration with IPOS and reflects our shared commitment to empowering freelance creative professionals, especially younger creators, to safeguard and uphold their IP rights.

“This is crucial in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.”

Ms See also highlighted VICPA’s broader mission.

“Besides IP protection, VICPA is also focused on improving work safety and wage protection for freelance creatives as well as upskilling to keep pace with new technology and new demands,” she said.

What partnership means for creative professionals

VICPA President James Tan, a veteran of the imaging sector, talked about the significance of this partnership.

“Entering into a formal relationship with a powerful organisation like IPOS lends a great amount of legitimacy and strength behind the advisories that we give to both service providers and service buyers,” he said.

Mr Tan also stressed the importance of IP knowledge for all parties involved.

“The whole creative economy is basically built on IP. Everybody who delivers creative services or products needs to know IP. Everybody who buys creative services or products also needs to know IP,” he said.

He sees the agreement between IPOS and VICPA as a crucial step in educating creatives about their rights and how to exercise them.

“Creatives need to know which part of what they do comes under IP when they enter into a contract, which part of the contract controls the IP, whether it’s exploiting them or they’re signing themselves into a horrible situation,” said Mr Tan.

VICPA President James Tan and fellow industry experts discuss copyright protection for freelance creatives during the “Polish Your Copyright Know-How for Creative Business” panel at IP Week @ SG 2024 (photo courtesy of IPOS)

A network for creative professionals

For performers like Laura Kee, the collaboration between IPOS and VICPA offers hope for clearer guidelines and better protection in the future.

“I think IPOS can offer VICPA a lot – be it drawing up, helping us with legal contracts, helping VICPA members with legal know-how in terms of contracts for IP – I think that’s one thing that’s very important,” she said.

Ms Kee also highlighted the urgent need to address emerging challenges, particularly those posed by generative AI.

“Gen AI is a new thing now, and I feel that’s something IPOS and VICPA can look at as well in terms of defining, be it legal or ethical or moral, boundaries around the usage,” she suggested.

As a member of VICPA, Ms Kee sees the value of being part of such an association.

“VICPA is a channel through which you can get help. It’s very important to have an association or union or centre where you can be part of a community and reach out to them if you face any issues,” she said.