SYNOPSISThe intersection between IP law and competition law has led to landmark cases and global discussion in the last two decades. To navigate through tumultuous IP issues of knowledge economy, platform economy, data-driven economy, generative AI and whatnot, a general theory of intellectual property (IP) law is indispensable, as it will establish IP as a stand-alone discipline with a shared DNA and common underlying principles, rather than silos in isolation. IP is in essence a market regulation to address the market failure of being public goods. IP is a sector-specific competition law to incentivize new creation and more importantly its sharing by providing sufficient protection. IP stives to maximize the public domain by three stages of exchange between the private and the public sector, namely granting IP (privatizing some parts of the public domain), using IP (enriching rightsholders and public interests alike) and terminating IP (constantly enlarging the public domain). However, sometimes IP overshoots its legitimate boundaries and becomes the source of other market failures at the costs of society, which can be best remedied by the general competition law. This book refines IP and critically looks at established stereotypical IP theories, national regimes, and the TRIPS Agreement. It examines international IP treaties and national IP regimes on compulsory licensing and advocates a general competition-oriented compulsory licensing of all IP — except trademarks, to restore compulsory licensing as an integral part of IP which will facilitate our interconnected daily life. The book further dedicates two chapters to discussing how to aggregate IP through patent pools, work pools and trademark pools of sorts, the database of well-known trademarks, to ease the licensing of IPRs which is often hampered by large number of IP and their intricate inner relationship. The book continues to develop a framework and mechanisms for the FRANDly licensing of SEPs on a global scale that would smooth out the setting up, taking on and working of new standards, which is of ever more critical importance for the fourth industrial revolution. The book further reaches out to corporate social responsibility to balance markets of secondhand branded goods with brand owners so that market competition can work, also to the benefits of circular economy and sustainable development. It ends with a tentative discussion of data, algorithms and the six principles of algorithmic auditing, IP, and competition. This volume is written with global concerns, not limited to any one specific area of IP or any jurisdiction. Clearly, however, it is with more emphasis on Asian interest constellations and considerations that contrast with other norm-setting economies. Hopefully, IP will thus be made more accessible to laymen, liberated from highly fragmented IP professionals, and many of the seeming conflicts between IP and competition law can be dissolved more into coherent complementarity.
Registrants will enjoy a 30% discount off the two monographs, Deciphering IP Law and Its Conflict and Complementarity with Competition Law and IP Laws and Regimes in Major Asian Economies, authored by Professor Liu. ABOUT THE SPEAKERSProfessor Liu Kung-Chung
Prof. Liu teaches at SMU Yong Pung How School of Law, in addition to Renmin University of China/Graduate Institute of Technology, Innovation and Intellectual Property Management, National Chengchi University, Taiwan.
His fields of specialty include intellectual property law, antitrust and unfair competition law, communications law and the interface between those disciplines, with a geographic focus on greater China and Asia.
Prof. Liu has authored two monographs: IP Laws and Regimes in Major Asian Economies― Combing Through Thousand
Threads of IP To Peace in Asia (Routledge 2022); Deciphering IP Law and Its Conflict with Competition Law—Global Norms
Against Asian Context (Routledge 2025).
He has also edited 16 volumes in English, with the latest being Kung-Chung Liu/Tianxiang He (eds.), Criminal Enforcement of IP in Asia–Its Sources, Significance, and Side-Effects (OUP forthcoming 2025).
 Professor Yeo Tiong Min
Yeo Tiong Min is Yong Pung How Chair Professor of Law in the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University. His research interests are in private law with a strong focus on private international law. 
Tan Tee Jim, S.C.
Tan Tee Jim, SC was called to the Singapore Bar in 1980. He graduated from the University of Singapore in 1979 and has a Master’s degree in law from the University of London. In 1999, he was appointed a Senior Counsel by the Supreme Court of Singapore.
Tee Jim has been involved in numerous IP landmark cases. He is the author of “Law of Trade Marks in Singapore” (Sweet & Maxwell, 4th ed., 2021) which has been regularly cited by the courts. In a survey conducted by “The Straits Times” in 2024, Tee Jim was named one of 25 “top-rated” lawyers in Singapore. Tee Jim also leads the Competition Law Practice at Lee & Lee. 
Professor Ng-Loy Wee Loon, S.C.
Ng-Loy Wee Loon’s main research interests lie in the field of Intellectual Property (IP) Law. She teaches “Law of Intellectual Property” which focuses on Singapore’s IP regime, as well as “International Trademark Law and Policy” and “International Copyright Law and Policy”. Amongst her academic publications is the text on Law of Intellectual Property of Singapore (3rd Revised Edition, 2022). Outside of the university, her involvement in the Iegal landscape of Singapore includes the following: a member of the Resource Panel for Government Parliamentary Committee for Law and Home Affairs (1999-2000); a member of the Board of Directors of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (2000-2001); a member of the Board of Governors of the IP Academy (2007-2011); a member of the Senate of the Singapore Academy of Law; a member of Singapore’s Copyright Tribunal; a member of the Singapore Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy Panel.
Professor Cheryl Long Xiaoning
Cheryl Xiaoning Long is Cheung Kong Scholar professor at Xiamen University, director of Intellectual Property and Innovation Research Centre (IPIRC) at Xiamen University Malaysia, and co-editor at China Economic Review. A law and economics scholar specialized in IP and antitrust, she has published in Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of International Economics. With degrees from Xi’an Jiaotong University, University of International Business and Economic, and Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Long was a Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow at Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and taught at Colgate University. FEESa. Early Bird Price (registration by 18 April 2025)
Registration fee of S$147.15* (inclusive of GST) applies.
b. Regular Price (registration after 18 April 2025)
Registration fee of S$163.50* (inclusive of GST) applies.
*Please note that there will be no refund of any fees should the participant cancel the registration/ fail to attend the event. However, registration is transferable. Notice of any change in participant should be sent to SMULA, by 24 April 2025.
SMU Law Academy reserves the right to cancel or postpone any event. In such case, we will arrange for the refund of fees paid.
| |  | Registration will close on 24 April 2025.
| Complimentary for SMU Law Full-time Faculty, Staff & Students. Please sign up with your SMU email address.
| DATE2 May 2025 | TIME2:30 PM - 4:30 PM
(Registration starts at 2:15 PM) | DELIVERY MODEIn-Person | VENUESingapore Management University | LOCATION MAPClick HERE for map | PUBLIC CPD POINTS2
| PRACTICE AREAIntellectual Property | TRAINING LEVELGeneral | | | PROGRAMME | 2:15 PM | Registration
| | 2:30 PM | Presentation by Professor Liu Kung-Chung
| | 3:45 PM | Panel
Moderator:
Professor Yeo Tiong Min
Discussants:
Tan Tee Jim, SC
Professor Ng-Loy Wee Loon
Professor Cheryl Long Xiaoning
| | 4:15 PM | Q&A
| | 4:30 PM | End of Event | | | |
|
|
