It’s not often we get to write about Brunei. The country is often overshadowed by its much larger neighbours – it shares an island with Malaysia and Indonesia, and is, in fact, divided into two sections joined by Malaysia’s Asia Highway Route 150. Colin Ong, managing partner of Dr. Colin Ong Legal Services, in 2014 wrote for the Oxford Business Group that “Brunei Darussalam is a place of tranquility.” 

But Brunei is moving forward when it comes to being a place of innovation, according to the forthcoming Global Innovation Index 2023, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization. In this year’s rankings, Brunei jumped from 92nd of the 132 economies ranked by WIPO to 87th. 

Brunei ranks highly in institutions (20th), infrastructure (54th), human capital and research (57th) and business sophistication (80th). It ranks poorly in creative outputs, knowledge and technology outputs and market sophistication, none of which ranked higher than 105th on the list. 

But a scan of ASEAN news sources turns up news about Brunei more often than one might expect: The Manila Bulletin reported in March that Multisys Technologies Corporation is set to co-develop an all-in-one telco, fintech and mobile commerce digital platform with Brunei’s largest telecommunications company, Datastream Digital, following the signing of a Joint Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization Agreement in Bandar Seri Begawan.  

Channel Asia reported earlier in August that Brunei telecommunications company Unified National Networks had started construction on a 51,000 sq ft data centre aimed at aiding the digitalization of Brunei. And The Star reported that six officials had left Brunei on August 1 to take part in a regional conference in Japan concerning Japanese energy technology. “We would like to learn more about the energy technologies from Japan – especially the knowhow of how Japan adopts the green and renewable energy as well as cost-effective approach,” Special Duties Officer Dayangku Fairuz told the newspaper in an interview. “We would also want to learn about how renewable energy is adopted from grassroots level which I believe that Brunei’s village could also follow the footsteps of the Japanese’s successful adaption of green energy.” 

It is against that backdrop that we bring you our inaugural list of Brunei’s IP Experts, a list of 10 key intellectual property lawyers who almost certainly be involved in the future of IP in the kingdom. Most of the lawyers named to our list have multiple practice specialties. Many of them are litigators, while others concentrate on prosecution work or provide strategic advice.  

All of them have something in common: they are experts in their fields and, in one way or another, they provide extra value for their clients. They are Asia IP’s Brunei IP Experts. – GREGORY GLASS 

Brunei’s IP Experts is based solely on independent editorial research conducted by Asia IP. As part of this project, we turned to in-house counsel in Southeast Asia and around the world, as well as Southeast Asia-focused partners at international law firms, and asked them to nominate private-practice lawyers including foreign legal consultants, advisers and counsel.  

The final list reflects the nominations received combined with the input of the editorial team at Asia IP, which has nearly 45 years of collective experience in researching and understanding the Southeast Asian legal market. 

All private practice intellectual property lawyers in Brunei were eligible for inclusion in the nominations process; there were no fees or any other requirements for inclusion in the process. 

The names of our 10 IP Experts are published here. Each IP Expert was given the opportunity to include their biography and contact details in print and on our website, for which a fee was charged.