Arbitration of Intellectual Property and Licensing Disputes – The Asia-Pacific Arbitration Review 2021

Morrison & Foerster’s article on the “Arbitration of Intellectual Property and Licensing Disputes”, featured in The Asia-Pacific Arbitration Review 2021, examines the viability and desirability of arbitration as an alternative mechanism for resolving cross-border IP and IP-related disputes.

Rights holders have traditionally turned to court litigation to protect rights such as patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets – or to enforce IP licensing agreements. This brings numerous challenges, including a public forum, unfamiliar laws and procedures, judges with varying IP law expertise, concern for national interests, and the risk that a judgment cannot be enforced in other jurisdictions.

Arbitration offers a credible alternative and has a number of advantages, such as confidentiality, a neutral forum or a single forum, the ability to select arbitrators with technical expertise, symmetrical risk for licensors, and cross-border enforceability of arbitral awards.

The Asia-Pacific Arbitration Review 2021 is published by the Global Arbitration Review.