Gowling WLG has awarded the winner of its 2018 IP Moot competition with an internship at any one of its global offices.
Ryan Kwan, a student from the National University of Singapore (NUS), was declared the winner of the Gowling WLG IP Moot 2018, which is a moot court competition open to undergraduate law students in Singapore.
The event is Singapore's only intellectual property moot and is organised by the NUS Law Mooting & Debating Club (MDC), sponsored by Gowling WLG UK LLP and JurisAsia LLC and supported by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).
The judges for the finals included the Hon. Justice Aedit Abdullah, Supreme Court of Singapore, Denis Croze, Singapore office director, WIPO, Mark Lim, director, Hearings & Mediation, IPOS, Gordon Harris, global co-head of IP at Gowling WLG and Sheena Jacob, partner at JurisAsia LLC.
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 (for the semi-final and final rounds).
Winner Ryan Kwan will receive a cash prize of SGD 1,200 and a global internship at any Gowling WLG office of his choice.
More than 60 students took part in the preliminary rounds of the competition and the top eight were selected to proceed to the semi-final round.
After a closely-fought semi-final round, the top two students from NUS and Singapore Management University (SMU) were selected to take part in the final before a five-judge bench, the first in any mooting competition in Singapore.
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.
The finals were a close affair, with all four students preparing outstanding submissions, impressing the five judges. Ryan Kwan was declared champion, while Elizabeth Teoh (NUS) took home first runner-up. S Lingesh Kumar (SMU) and Lyndon Seow (SMU) were declared joint second runner-up. All four will be awarded internships at JurisAsia LLC and a cash prize.