The Great World Law Debate

Dispute Resolution – Litigation & ADR

Why Mediation Fail & How to Achieve Better Results
The majority of disputes resolved at Mediation. Nonetheless, there remain those that impasse. Explore the leading reasons why Mediation fail and how to achieve better results.

• Lack of Preparation
• Unethical conduct in mediation
• Absence of Decision-Makers
• Wearing Trial Binders
• Last Minute Surprises
• Emotion and Anxiety

Crafting Arbitration Clauses: How Specificity Reduces Dispute Time & Costs

When drafting arbitration clauses, specificity matters. The last thing you want is a disagreement over the provision itself. That would defeat the purpose of the arbitration, and result in litigating the meaning of the clause.

Choosing arbitration provider institution shouldn’t be arbitrary

Arbitration providers are all good. But who can take care of the neutrality and all the customized needs of the partners in a transaction or a contract is what makes the choice work for them. But how can parties find one which suits their needs? Other than just using names of years old organizations from the boilerplate templates. What other choice do you have?

Intellectual Property

Competition and Patents
There is a close link between patent rights and competition, which, in simple terms, can be characterized by two factors: on the one hand, patent laws aim to prevent the copying or imitation of patented goods, and thus complement competition policies in that they contribute to a fair market behavior. On the other hand, competition laws may limit patent rights in that patent holders may be barred from abusing their rights. In sum, experience shows that too high or too low protection of both patents and competition may lead to trade distortions. A balance has thus to be found between competition policy and patent rights, and this balance must achieve the goal of preventing abuses of patent rights, without annulling the reward provided for by the patent system when appropriately used.

Traditional knowledge and intellectual property
Traditional knowledge as such – knowledge that has ancient roots and is often oral – is not protected by conventional intellectual property (IP) systems. Explore how Defensive protection
strategies ensure that third parties do not gain illegitimate or unfounded IP rights over TK and Positive protection prevents unauthorized use, and active exploitation of TK by the originating community itself.

General Counsel, In-House Counsel

Establishing Value Added Partnerships and Outsourcing Effectively
Leveraging third-party expertise is a vital, but difficult part of being an effective leader. Outside counsel and technology providers are key partners –

• But to what degree do in-house teams lean on them? And at what cost? Boards, rightly or wrongly, see legal departments as a business cost vs a profit centre.
• How do GCs, CLOs and other legal leaders within organisations evaluate, scrutinize and maintain the best resources efficiently and effectively?
• The dos and don’ts for outsourcing, as well as how to build real value-added partnerships.

Secrets and Spies
How Law fails to protect Trade Secrets? Patents have historically provided stronger protection and enforcement mechanisms when compared to trade secrets. Unlike patents, trade secrets are not exclusive rights and are susceptible to reverse engineering risks.