LEE Basil

Basil Lee is a partner in the Intellectual Property Department.

Basil graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2016, and was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 2017. While at the National University of Singapore, Basil was awarded the APAA Patent Law Book Prize as the top student in Intellectual Property Law, and also represented the university at the Monroe E Price Media Law Moot Court Competition, the world’s largest and most prestigious moot court competition for freedom of expression and media and information technology.

Basil handles a wide range of contentious matters, including intellectual property litigation, and commercial litigation and arbitration across diverse subject matter (including banking, energy, mining, cryptocurrency, shareholder oppression, contractual, and employment disputes). He regularly appears before the Singapore courts (including the Court of Appeal, Singapore’s highest court), and has successfully acted in a number of landmark cases.

Selected cases:

• Successfully acted for a global chemical giant in a patent infringement claim involving the semiconductor industry (the High Court judgment was reported as Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials CMP Holdings, Inc v NexPlanar Corp [2018] 5 SLR 180 (SGHC); the appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal).
• Successfully acted for a local hospital in a patent entitlement claim for medical technology (Cicada Cube Pte Ltd v National University Hospital (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2018] 2 SLR 940 (SGCA)). This was a landmark case on the time-bar for applications to court to determine entitlement to a patent.
• Successfully discharged an injunction against the KAWS: HOLIDAY art exhibition from taking place at The Float @ Marina Bay.
• Acted for a local film company in the first IP trial under the Simplified Process.
• Successfully acted for a local businessman in resisting claims of minority oppression and conspiracy (Marten Joseph Matthew v AIQ Pte Ltd (in liquidation) and others [2023] SGHC 361).
• Successfully acted for a leading international fund management company in enforcing an exclusive jurisdiction clause (Allianz Capital Partners GmbH, Singapore Branch v Goh Andress [2023] 1 SLR 1618 (Appellate Division)). This was the first Singapore case affirming and applying the extended Fiona Trust principle, where an exclusive jurisdiction clause in one contract is read to extend to another contract.
• Successfully acted for an Indonesian investor against a leading German bank in a breach of contract claim for over US$18m (Long Well Group Ltd v Commerzbank AG and others [2018] SGHC 57; the appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal).
• Successfully acted for two investors in enforcing a writ of seizure and sale for a jointly tenanted immovable property (Ong Boon Hwee v Cheah Ng Soo and others [2019] 4 SLR 1392 (SGHC)).
• Acted against a leading Singapore energy company in an international arbitration for claims of more than US$25m relating to an overseas power plant.
• Acted for a group of Indonesian businessmen against a mining company in an international arbitration relating to a gold mine.

Basil also handles non-contentious intellectual property-related and technology-related matters, such as advising global tech giants on a variety of regulatory compliance matters (such as telecommunications, consumer protection, and COVID-19 related laws and regulations), and educational institutions and the Singapore Government on intellectual property agreements and registrations.

Basil was also a published contributor to the trade marks and passing off chapter in the 2018 and 2020 re-issues of Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore: Volume 13:3 – Intellectual Property. Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore is a leading text for legal practitioners in Singapore, providing a succinct narrative statement of core areas of law and practice.