This year, Asian Legal Business has spotlighted 15 IP practitioners across Asia who are recognised to have excelled in the increasingly strategic field. Through a solid track record, they have demonstrated themselves as reliable solution providers to their clients, formidable competitors to their peers, and creative pioneers to their followers.
What strategies do you credit for your recog-nition as one of ALB Asia’s Top 15 Intellectual Property Lawyers?
I attribute this special recognition to clients that have put trust in us and given us the opportu-nity to handle and solve their various types of complex and challenging IP work over the last few years. They push us to hone our already diverse IP expertise to another level in delivering stra-tegic legal recommendations for actions with the most effective possible outcomes. This recognition is possible also because of the support from the team of IP professionals, who have a deep-rooted commitment to clients and relentlessly pursue new knowledge and experience.
How do you stay updated on industry trends, and how has this commitment influenced your success in intellectual property law?
I have been very fortunate to practice in a firm that has various industry focus groups and to be involved in discussions with lawyers specializing in several different practice areas. This allows me to learn and keep abreast of any new regulatory and legal trends in Indonesia relevant to IP issues. This also helps improve our services in solving IP legal issues from the perspective of the clients’ industry and business. The firm encourages anyone to be champions in specific industries and to commit to keeping up with any development through either proactive industry research; participation in legal forums; attending industry focus talks, conferences and seminars; and fostering close relationships within the industry community/associations. This unwavering effort has significantly influenced the firm’s success in intellectual prop-erty practice by ensuring that we have the latest insights and knowledge necessary to provide our clients with comprehensive and effective legal representation.
What advice would you give to aspiring intellec-tual property lawyers looking to make a mark in the industry?
The level of the game in the local IP scene has changed a lot when I compare it with my early years of practicing more than 25 years ago. Nowadays, clients expect to be working with IP legal professionals with broad expertise beyond non-contentious and contentious IP work. Clients also expect lawyers to always have a practical commercial sense. In-depth industry knowledge of the clients’ business, including the ability to foresee potential risks and issues should there be regulation or law changes or relevant court decisions, is now a “must have”, especially in complex IP transactional work. Developing skills in the field of data privacy, media, advanced technolo-gies and AI should also be a focus for aspiring IP lawyers to make a mark in the years to come. As IP laws are expected to change, IP lawyers also have the opportunity to contribute to the IP legal development framework in Indonesia. In short, it is definitely an exciting time for up-and-coming IP lawyers who are practising and building careers in this ever-dynamic and evolving field of law.
