A significant part of contentious work handled by the litigation teams in the Firm, involves intellectual property disputes.

A notable case involving intellectual property dispute with extraterritorial jurisdiction issues, is where the Firm represented the manufacturers of stadium seats for the Emirates Stadium in London.

The Firm has also handled contentious intellectual property disputes in Singapore involving breach of confidence claims, in which it successfully obtained the desired injunctive relief to preserve confidential information.

The members of the litigation team in the Firm have also been involved in handling copyright disputes representing Malaysian corporate clients in collaboration with its Malaysian associates.

A notable recent success achieved by the Firm in the Singapore Court was in a domain name dispute in which the Court declared that a contract involving cybersquatting was unenforceable on the ground of illegality.

This was a ground-breaking decision as the Court expanded the categories of illegality sufficient to render the contract unenforceable, to include cybersquatting. The significant implication of this is obvious given the proliferation of internet usage

Another ground-breaking case in intellectual property which the Firm successfully handled a claim for breach of confidence in which the clients’ computer was surreptitiously accessed and thousands of private and confidential documents were downloaded without clients’ authority.

The Firm successfully argued that in respect of the surreptitiously downloaded documents, there was no need to particularise each and every document to establish confidentiality provided that the client is able to show with cogent evidence that the documents and information were private and confidential.

The Firm continues to render regular advice to corporate clients across a wide spectrum of intellectual property issues including preservation of confidential information, trademarks, and trade names etc.

Some Reported Cases:

• Universal Westech (S) Pte Ltd v Ng Thiam Kiat & Ors [1997] 2 SLR 139
• Ng Thiam Kiat v Universal Westech (S) Pte Ltd [1997] 3 SLR 419 [Court Of Appeal] **
• Admal Sdn Bhd v The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad & Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Berhad [2013] 1 LNS 276
• 3 Corporate Services Pte Ltd v Grabtaxi Holdings Pte Ltd [2020] 4 SLR 941 **
• Jethanand Harkishindas Bhojwani v Lakshmi Prataprai Bhojwani (alias Mrs Lakshmi Jethanand Bhojwani) and others [2021] SGHC 256 **

NOTE: ** Landmark Decisions