When it comes to promoting and protecting intellectual property, there has probably never been a government quite like that of Singapore.  

While IPOS, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, largely takes the lead in promoting Singapore not only as a global IP hub, but also as an international hub for technology and IP dispute resolution, it is strongly aided by other ministries, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Trade and Industry and many other government agencies.  

Singapore is a preferred filing destination for patent, trademark and design applications. Filers understand that the rule of law is paramount in Singapore, in part because of heavy promotion by IPOS, but also due to a long history of reasonable outcomes for commercial cases. 

Singapore has seen its stock as a legal and commercial hub in Asia rise in recent years as Hong Kong and its government have grown closer to mainland China, a move exacerbated by Hong Kong’s National Security Law and its more than 30 months of tight Covid-19 immigration controls. 

Time magazine reported that wealth overseen by the asset management industry in Singapore has doubled in just six years, to about US$4 trillion, according to central bank figures, about 80% of which is foreign. “BlackRock Inc. is expanding in Singapore, as is the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which shut down its equity team in Hong Kong in 2023. Even Swiss banks are getting into the act: UBS Group AG’s offices dominate an entire city block in a prime shopping district, with a staff of 3,000, a private gym and a cappuccino bar. It’s now the firm’s largest operation in Asia,” Time reported. 

“There’s not just one subsegment that’s suddenly hot on Asia – we’re seeing allocations from everyone,” says Mark Voumard, co-founder of money manager Gordian Capital Singapore told the magazine. Singapore “has momentum, and once something has legs it’ll continue to run.” 

There’s no doubt that Singapore will face competition in its drive to become Asia’s regional financial hub, and in its expected efforts to corner the market on services such as arbitration and other forms of ADR. Tokyo and Shanghai also offer the creature comforts required by the expat community, with perhaps better weather to boot.  

But Hong Kong’s loss will almost certainly be Singapore’s gain, at least to some degree. And that will likely make Singapore’s legal market even stronger than it is right now.  

With Singapore potentially on the cusp of change, we turned to IP professionals in the region in order to understand better what clients need today. Asia IP asked a large number of professionals – mostly in-house counsel and corporate legal managers – what they were looking for from their legal service providers. From their answers, we have compiled our list of Singapore’s 50 IP Experts, those lawyers who understand just what their clients need and are able to provide them with the best practical advice.  

Our list reflects a growing diversity of practices in Singapore, with lawyers from a number of young and relatively young firms receiving recognition as IP Experts.  

Not surprisingly, a handful of larger firms headline the list. Drew & Napier led our list, placing four lawyers among the Top 50 (Meryl Koh, Siau Wen Lim, Yvonne Tang and Tony Yeo). Amica Law placed three lawyers (Jason Chan, Jo-Ann See and Winnie Tham). 

Several firms placed two lawyers each on the list: Allen & Gledhill (Stanley Lai and Pei Lin Low), Dentons Rodyk (Catherine Lee and Gilbert Leong), Donaldson & Burkinshaw (Michelle S.H. Ng and Shy Tsong Lee), Kelvin Chia Partnership (Kelvin Chia and Yee Ming Lim), Lee & Lee (Maurice Cheong and Tee Jim Tan), Marks & Clerk (Matthew English and Gianfranco Matteucci) and RHT Law Asia (Esther Wee and Rizwi Wun). 

Twenty-eight different firms each placed one lawyer on our list, accounting for more than half of all lawyers named. 

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 Singapore IP Experts.

– GREGORY GLASS 

Singapore’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 Singapore, Asia and elsewhere 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 50 years of collective experience in researching and understanding Singapore’s legal market. 

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

The names of our 50 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.