Alban Tay Mahtani & de Silva LLP's IP & Technology practice is well-known in Singapore. The firm picked up the Singapore IP Firm of the Year award for the third straight year at the ALB South-East Asia Awards and also the Asialaw IP Award for Singapore Firm of the Year for two of the last three years, beating much larger firms in the process. Says the firm's Managing Partner Alban Kang, "We are proud of these achievements and are grateful to our clients for their support. But we cannot rest on our laurels and we plan to continually work to improve the quality of our service to deliver to clients what they need most: sound and practical legal advice. Our success depends on every member of the team."
According to the Asia Pacific Legal 500 - 2007/2008 "Alban Tay Mahtani & De Silva remains one of the top operators in the IP market, with trade mark and patent infringement matters the core of its practice." Chambers Asia: Asia's Leading Lawyers for Business says of the firm: "This small, young, full-service firm is best known in the market for its "top-class expertise in the IP sphere."
Its senior IP partners, Alban Kang, Sheena Jacob and Cyril Chua have also been individually recognized in various legal ranking including in the category of Intellectual Property. For a mid-size Singapore firm, ATMD, as the firm is known, punches well above its weight.
Now ATMD has set its sights firmly on the Asian region believing that it can bring its strength and expertise in IP beyond Singapore's shores. The firm has begun consolidating its move into the region by servicing many of its clients in South-East Asia and beyond, traditionally an area serviced only by the much larger international firms. Adds Sheena Jacob, partner and head of the IP & Technology Group, "Our clients pushed us to move into the region because they wanted to work with us outside of Singapore. Because of the challenging environment, we have had to rely on our wealth of experience to help our clients solve some of their IP problems in the region."
This regional push is spearheaded by IP partner Cyril Chua who heads the Anti-piracy practice within the IP & Technology Group. Chua, with more than 12 years of anti-piracy experience, and his team have built on the firm's already strong reputation for Singapore anti-piracy work - the firm represents a wide range of clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Epson, Canon, Billabong, Chanel, Microsoft, Creative, Daimler, GM and a host of others in Singapore. ATMD now manages the regional anti-piracy campaigns of several large multinationals such as Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Canon, Samsung and Epson. Says partner Cyril Chua "Our clients expect us to deliver results and we strive to make that happen, even in a difficult environment. We understand the client's expectations and work within each country's framework to achieve the same goal, albeit by different means." The anti-piracy team conducts enforcement actions for its clients in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia.
In addition, much of the firm's trade mark and patent practice involves regional and global aspects as both Singapore companies and the large number of multi-nationals based in Singapore look at protecting their IP in other markets, such as the US, China, Japan and Europe. Because of the importance of the US market to its clients, ATMD moved to hire two senior US patent attorneys, David Sigmond and Nevin Carmichael, to handle the growing amount of patent work originating from R&D in Singapore. In addition, Alban Kang, together with other partners Koh Chia Ling and Karol Goh have been involved in a number of high profile patent and trade mark infringement cases. Alban Kang, Sheena Jacob and Cyril Chua are also qualified to practice in New York, England and Malaysia giving the firm a decidedly international outlook.
The IP & Technology Group also has a unique culture and cohesiveness brought about by working closely together in difficult situations. All the partners have conducted criminal enforcement actions and some have faced threats and reprisals. Clearly working at ATMD is not for the faint-hearted. But partner Cyril Chua adds, "At the end of the day, there is a strong sense of satisfaction from achieving the client's goals and knowing that we have helped to protect their hard-earned intellectual property rights."