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NUS Law Wins Gowling WLG IP Moot 2018
NUS Law students swept the top prizes of the Gowling WLG IP Moot 2018 competition! Ryan Kwan ’20 was declared the champion, and Elizabeth Teoh ’20 was named first runner-up.
The winner of the competition received a cash prize of $1,200 and a global internship at any Gowling WLG office of their choice.
S. Lingesh Kumar and Lyndon Seow, second-year students from Singapore Management University (SMU), came in as joint second runners-up. All four will be awarded internships at JurisAsia LLC and a cash prize.
The Gowling WLG IP Moot is a competition open to undergraduate law students in Singapore. The moot is Singapore’s only intellectual property moot and is organised by the NUS Law Mooting & Debating Club (MDC), sponsored by Gowling WLG (UK) and JurisAsia LLC and supported by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).
Students were required to prepare oral and written submissions at a simulated IPOS trademark opposition hearing (for the Preliminary Rounds) or the Singapore Court of Appeal (semi-final and final rounds).
Preliminary Rounds
The preliminary rounds of the competition were judged by lawyers from JurisAsia LLC, hearing officers from IPOS, as well as external counsel from organizations such as A*STAR and Lazada.
Over 60 students took part in the preliminary rounds of the competition which was held on 27 January 2018. The moot problem for the preliminary rounds was focused on a trademark dispute over the use of a word mark.
The top 8 students from the preliminary rounds were selected to proceed to the semi-final round. Four from SMU and four from NUS Law were selected.
| Semi-Finalists from SMU | Semi-Finalists from NUS |
| S. Lingesh Kumar (Year 2)
Sim Meiyi (Year 5) Galvin Wee (Year 3) Lyndon Seow (Year 2) |
Ryan Kwan (Year 2)
Tan Ming Ren (Year 2) Jonathan Tan (Year 2) Elizabeth Teoh (Year 2) |
Semi-Finals
The semi-finalists were given a new moot problem based on an infringement action and had one week to prepare for the new round of the competition.
The semi-finals of the moot on 2 February had three judges simulating the Singapore Court of Appeal – Ms See Tho Sok Yee (Principal Legal Counsel, IPOS), Professor Irene Calboli (SMU) and Ms Sheena Jacob (JurisAsia LLC).
After a closely-fought semi-final round, the top two students from each university were then selected to proceed to the final round of the competition.
| Finalists from SMU | Finalists from NUS |
| S. Lingesh Kumar (Year 2)
Lyndon Seow (Year 2) |
Ryan Kwan (Year 2)
Elizabeth Teoh (Year 2) |
The Finals
The finals were set to be an exciting event – a clash between the two schools before a five-judge bench, the first of any mooting competition in Singapore.
The judges for the finals included:
- The Hon. Justice Aedit Abdullah ’94, Supreme Court of Singapore
- Denis Croze, Singapore Office Director, WIPO
- Mark Lim ’94, Director, Hearings & Mediation, IPOS
- Gordon Harris, Gowling WLG (UK)
- Sheena Jacob ’88, JurisAsia LLC
The students were given a week to prepare for the Grand Finals and the moot problem focused on a novel area of trademark law concerning the use of Google AdWords.
All four students prepared outstanding submissions, and impressed the judges.
After returning from their deliberations, Justice Aedit Abdullah ’94 paid tribute to the late Associate Professor Elizabeth Ng Siew Kuan, calling her a giant in the field of intellectual property and noted her immense contributions to the development of IP in Singapore.
He commended the participants on the high standards of advocacy on display. He thanked Gowling WLG and JurisAsia for their sponsorship of the event and remarked that he hoped the event would continue for years to come.
Professor Simon Chesterman, Dean of NUS Law, thanked the judges and presented tokens of appreciation to them on behalf of the Faculty.
