Singapore, along with well-situated peers including Switzerland, Sweden, the United States and South Korea, has a comfortable perch atop the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2025 rankings. 

The 2025 marks the third consecutive year that Singapore landed in the Top 5, according to a statement released by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). This is also the second year that Singapore has achieved the highest number of top-ranked indicators, securing 1st place for 10 out of 78 GII indicators. 

The GII ranking is based on two broad areas: innovation inputs and innovation outputs. Innovation inputs refer to factors that enable innovative activities (e.g., institutions, human capital, infrastructure, market sophistication and business sophistication), while innovation outputs reflect the results of innovative activity (e.g., knowledge and technology outputs and creative outputs). Singapore maintained its top position in innovation inputs for the 15th year in a row. It continued to hold the top spot for the institutions pillar, while maintaining 2nd position in the human capital and research pillar and 3rd position in the business sophistication pillar. More specifically, top-ranked indicators for Singapore include government effectiveness, policy stability for doing business and FDI net inflows. 

“Singapore’s performance in the Global Innovation Index (GII) reflects the collective commitment across government, businesses, and research communities to build a world-class innovation ecosystem,” said IPOS Chief Executive Kong Hwee Tan. “Singapore maintained its leading position in innovation inputs, but more significantly, we improved two positions to 9th in innovation outputs – our highest rank in over a decade. This indicates that we have enhanced our innovation capability to realize tangible benefit for the economy.” 

Tan says the GII provides encouragement and affirmation as Singapore plans for the next bound of the Singapore IP Strategy (SIPS) 2030. 

“The GII 2025 maps the contours of innovation across the world, showing us that the fastest-advancing economies in the GII are those that view innovation as a fundamental engine of resilience, growth and competitiveness,” WIPO director general Daren Tang said. “This year's GII reveals both encouraging progress as well as challenges that still need to be addressed for countries to fully harness their innovation potential. It is a reminder that innovation ecosystems require support and nurturing through thoughtful policies, meaningful investments and cross-sector collaboration.” 

With Singapore once again near the top of the GII, 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 five lawyers among the Top 50 (Meryl Koh, Siau Wen Lim, Yvonne Tang, Ruby Tham 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), Bird & Bird ATMD (Bridget Goh and Lorraine Tay), Dentons Rodyk & Davidson (Catherine Lee and Gilbert Leong), Donaldson & Burkinshaw (Shy Tsong Lee and Michelle S.H. Ng), Kelvin Chia Partnership (Kelvin Chia and Yee Ming Lim), Lee & Lee (Maurice Cheong and Tee Jim Tan), RHT Law Asia (Esther Wee and Rizwi Wun) and Wong Partnership (Kylie Peh and Chung Nian Lam). 

Twenty-six 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 more than 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.