Stanley Lai SC

Cybersecurity & Data Protection; Intellectual Property; International Arbitration; Litigation; Technology, Media & Telecommunications

Dr Stanley Lai, SC is Head of Intellectual Property and Co-Head of Cybersecurity & Data Protection. He specialises in all forms of IP litigation and information technology disputes, and is also a commercial litigator. He maintains a strong advisory practice for IP/data management and cybersecurity, serving a broad spectrum of clients. He also represents clients in investigations that are undertaken by the Personal Data Protection Commission. In the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors, Stanley has substantial experience in advising on healthcare and medical IP and regulatory issues concerning medicines, generics, patent linkage, bio-similars, medical devices, clinical trials, product recalls and product liability.

Stanley is a specialist in alternative dispute resolution, appearing as counsel in IP and TMT arbitrations. He is an experienced mediator, specialising in IP disputes. He has practised as a Senior Counsel for more than 10 years and is the first Singapore-born lawyer to have obtained a PhD in law from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Member, Singapore International Arbitration Centre Intellectual Property Panel

Member, Singapore Copyright Tribunal

Senior Mediator, Singapore Mediation Centre

Specialist Mediator, Singapore International Mediation Centre

Member, Market Surveillance and Compliance Panel (National Electricity Market of Singapore)

Foreign Law, Foreign Lawyers, Chapter 15 in Charting New Waters: The Singapore International Commercial Court After Ten Years, Academy Publishing (2025)

The Singapore chapter of Encyclopedia of International Commercial Litigation, Kluwer Law International (2025)

The Singapore section of The International Comparative Legal Guide to Product Liability, Global Legal Group (2025)

“Data Protection and Generative AI – Policy, Regulation, and the Way Forward”, Cambridge Journal of Artificial Intelligence (Volume 1, Issue 2) (2024)

“Beyond the Green Facade: "Greenwashing" Risks and Strategies for Authentic Sustainability”, NUS Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (TRAIL) (October 2023)

“Protection of aesthetic appearances in the Copyright Act 2021 and Registered Designs Act 2000”, NUS Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (TRAIL) (July 2023)

The Singapore chapter of Genuine Use of Trademarks, Wolters Kluwer (2021)

“The Protection of Partial Designs”, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (2018) 13(4) 279

“The Future of Inventive Step in Patent Law” (2012) 24 SAcLJ 599 (Special Issue on Intellectual Property)

The "Intellectual Property" Volume (Volume D) of Singapore Precedents and Forms, LexisNexis (2005)

The Copyright Protection of Computer Software in the United Kingdom, Hart Publishing (2000)

Graduated from the University of Leicester with an LL.B. (Hons) degree and obtained an LL.M. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.