Following a five-year merger as part of Chooi & Company + Cheang & Ariff, Cheang & Ariff has once again emerged as an independent firm, backed by its longstanding legal knowledge and experience in dispute resolution and intellectual property. The revitalised dispute resolution team now handles a high volume of complex commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation matters both domestically and internationally for a diverse client base. The team’s expertise covers a wide spectrum of issues, including contractual disputes, regulatory investigations, insolvency proceedings, banking litigation, insurance litigation, construction disputes and international trade disputes. Its intellectual property team, on the other hand, is lauded for its active involvement in IP litigation and highly complex patent trademark and copyright litigation cases involving local and international pharmaceuticals companies and technology corporations. The IP department also provides pro-bono work for specific clients and enjoys doing IP cases involving public interest. Dispute resolution partner Siew Cheang Loh and IP specialist Joo Seong (Cindy) Goh are key names to note.
Work highlights
Acted for Les Editions Jalou, a respected family publishing house, which first published L’Officiel magazine more than 100 years ago, in 1921, on a passing-off claim against a local publisher.
Advised Chinese medicine manufacturer Proverio in a packaging passing-off matter against three local manufacturers.
Represented Tandex, a cleaning chemicals producer in Australia with a long history of supplying chemicals for cleaning industrial machinery, on potential trademark infringement where a Malaysian company, a former distributor, continued using the client’s trademark in selling similar chemicals, exporting goods bearing the brand to Bangladesh.
Key clients
Framemotion Studio, Inver House Distillers, Pan Pacific International Holdings Corporation, Tatsuno Corporation and Tatsuno Engineering & Service Malaysia
Work highlights
Acting for Lysaght Corrugated Pipe and Lysaght Galvanized Steel, who discovered that agreements purportedly representing contracts between them and another company that had initiated arbitration proceedings in Hong Kong to claim for unpaid goods were in fact forged documents. This case dealt with determining the appropriate test for an application for a stay of proceedings pending arbitration. Precedents from various commonwealth jurisdictions were considered to determine the proper test to adopt in Malaysia. The Court of Appeal’s decision, the first appellate ruling concerning the issues involved, is beneficial for future cases as it examines the law surrounding anti-foreign arbitration injunctions and stays pending arbitration.
Acting for SPC Diatech, a Russian company owning several patented oil and gas diagnostic technologies, in defending claims of defamation, inducement of breach of contract, tortious interference and improper termination of an agreement. After a 37-day trial, the High Court dismissed all the claimant’s claims while allowing all the defendant’s counterclaims. The claimant appealed the High Court’s decision to the Court of Appeal, but in May 2022 the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeal. The firm also obtained an interim payment order for RM2.5 million ($537,000) and succeeded in a discovery appeal upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Acted for Asmara International, the defendant in a claim where the claimant had sued over unpaid invoices. The defendant concurrently counterclaimed for damages relating to allegedly defective goods sold by the claimant. The claimant filed several interim applications, including applications seeking summary judgment and security for costs against the defendant. This was the first reported case in Malaysia wherein the court discussed identifying the actual ‘attacked’ and ‘defender’ when determining whether to grant security for costs sought by the claimant. The matter has now been settled out of court.
Key clients
Ali Health, Bursa Malaysia Securities, Ernst & Young Consulting, iCapital.Biz
