Tanner De Witt

Intellectual Property, Arbitration, Litigation

Partner, Dispute Resolution, Head of IP

Doug is a partner in the Disputes Resolution practice focusing on Mainland China and Hong Kong intellectual property disputes and arbitration.He was based in Hong Kong from 1993 to 2000 before practising for 11 years in Shanghai and then returning to Hong Kong to practice as a barrister. In 2021 he re-qualified as a solicitor and regularly appears in the higher Hong Kong courts as a solicitor advocate. He also as sits as an arbitrator or appears as counsel in arbitrations and is a Deputy Chairman of the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Board of Review.

In his career, Doug has handled the entire range of contentious IP cases including running complex multi-jurisdictional patent litigation (often in relation to standard essential patents); acting as arbitrator or counsel in numerous patent and high technology arbitrations; establishing new law in relation to anti- circumvention technologies; and numerous high value trademark and passing off cases. He has also obtained interim injunctions in relation to infringement of all types of IP rights including multiple Anton Piller orders and Mareva injunctions. Early in his career he handled numerous anti-counterfeiting cases in Mainland China and attended raids on hundreds of factories and warehouses.

Doug’s non-contentious IP experience includes negotiation and advising on technology transfer contracts; conducting patent and other intellectual property audits; and, freedom to operate analyses. He has also given expert evidence on Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong law in overseas court proceedings or international arbitrations.

Doug began his career in Hong Kong in 1993 with international law firm, Lovells. In 2000, he moved to Shanghai where he first worked on secondment with a Chinese firm and, in 2003, he established and was Managing Partner of Lovells’ Shanghai office for 7 years. In 2011 he returned to Hong Kong to practice as a barrister and in 2020 joined IP boutique Rouse as Global Head of Dispute Resolution. In that role he supervised multiple litigation matters in the Mainland of China.

English, Japanese, Manadarin

The Law Society of Hong Kong Fellow, Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators Asian Patent Attorneys Association International Trademark Association