Candice Kwok is a partner in the Intellectual Property & Technology Practice with close to 20 years of experience in global brand market positioning, focusing on international trademark portfolio management, enforcement counseling and contentious trademark proceedings. Candice is renowned for her sophisticated understanding of IP value and track record of success in helping her clients realize it through brand management.

Candice’s work for clients around the world encompasses the management and coordination of trademark portfolios, including filing and prosecuting trademarks, advising on global branding strategies, and helping clients with the development and protection of brand names. Candice also acts for clients in contentious trademark disputes, by commencing or defending opposition, revocation or invalidation proceedings. She represents clients in a diverse range of industries, including fintech, food and beverage, healthcare and fashion.

Candice is regularly invited by private and public organizations to speak and lecture on trademark issues. She was WIPO’s invited expert speaker at a seminar on the Madrid System, the EUIPO’s guest speaker at a seminar for the ASEAN IP offices, and lectured in Mandarin Chinese on Singapore IP law at a Sino-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City IP Group Seminar. The Singapore Management University’s law faculty has invited Candice on various occasions to speak on intellectual property issues, and clients engage her to conduct in-house brand management training workshops.

Prior to joining the firm, Candice was a partner based in the Singapore office of a UK intellectual property firm where top-tier brand owners from around the world called on her to advise and guide them on building and protecting their brands, represent them in contentious trademark proceedings before the Singapore Registry, and coordinate and implement comprehensive dispute resolution strategies with local counsel in other jurisdictions.

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  • Represented one of the largest general trading companies in Japan with the due diligence review and evaluation of a major Singapore commodities company’s intellectual property assets in connection with an acquisition. 
  • Represented the owners of a world-renowned lifestyle destination in a multijurisdictional dispute over their trademark rights, spanning Singapore, the US, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand and Europe.
  • Acted in multiple opposition and invalidation proceedings in Singapore for a luxury streetwear fashion brand from Europe taking action against an Asian copycat company.
  • Regular representation of a publicly listed healthcare company in connection with the selection, maintenance, clearance and protection of all of its trademarks worldwide.
  • Successfully resolved numerous trademark opposition, revocation and invalidation disputes before the Singapore Registry for clients in diverse fields such as cosmetics, telecommunications, household goods and financial services, among others.
 

Education

  • National University of Singapore, LL.B., 1999

Admissions

  • California, 2010
  • Singapore, 2000

Memberships and Affiliations

  • Chair, Trademark Office Practices – Asia-Pacific Subcommittee, International Trademark Association (INTA), 2018-2021
  • Member, Non-Traditional Trademarks Committee, International Trademark Association (INTA), 2022-2023 

Languages

  • English
  • Mandarin
  • Cantonese
  • Japanese
  • French
  • Named as one of the Influential Women in IP by World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) 2022
  • Recommended, World Trademark Review, 2013-present
  • IP Star, Managing Intellectual Property, 2014-present
  • Trademark Leader, World IP Review
  • Listed among the World’s Leading IP Strategists, IAM
  • “Consistently delivers pragmatic, on-point advice in tricky prosecution and strategy engagements.” World Trademark Review 1000
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