Survey Analyzes Tech, Media, Telecom Disputes; IP Prominent

Newly released results of a survey published by the Queen Mary University of London on disputes relating to technology, media and telecommunications reveal interesting details about the types of disputes brought and the reasons behind them.

“The 2016 International Dispute Resolution Survey ‘An insight into resolving Technology, Media and Telecoms Disputes’, sponsored by Pinsent Masons LLP, is the seventh carried out by the School of International Arbitration since 2006, as part of a major investigation into international dispute resolution practices and trends worldwide,” the report states.

The survey report, entitled, “Pre-empting and Resolving Technology, Media and Telecoms Disputes,” is available here [pdf].

“This Survey reveals common practices for resolving technology, media and telecoms (TMT) disputes, including the use of ADR [alternative dispute resolution] mechanisms, thereby allowing stakeholders to benchmark their own businesses’ internal practices,” it says. “It puts quantitative findings into market context and seeks to predict efficient solutions to challenges that surround TMT disputes.”

The World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Centre contributed to the survey. The survey looked at intellectual property disputes, as well as others such as related to outsourcing, data breaches, and reputation. The report shows disputes are high-value, many in excess of US$ 100 million, and provides statistics on the types of arbitration, how disputes turned out, and why different approaches were taken.

At the outset, the researchers said in the study, “We expected that IP and licensing matters would feature strongly. Technology necessarily involves protecting the intellectual creativity behind innovations, and owners of such intellectual property will take action to defend and exploit the fruits of their work. Further, with technology moving at a rapid pace, innovation cannot be held back by invalid or wrongly enforced rights and disputes will therefore arise to clear IP rights that are blocking further innovation.”

The three most common forms of IP disputes were trademark infringement, patent infringement and copyright infringement, the study found (next in the list were patent validity/invalidity, unfair competition, trade secrets, patent essentiality, and design right).

“One might have expected copyright infringement to feature higher up the list, given that this is the primary protection offered to software,” the study said. “However, brand protection is an issue facing all businesses, and hence the prominence of trade mark issues.”

When looking at individual sectors, the areas of telecoms, IT, and energy and manufacturing each placed patent infringement as the most common type of IP dispute, the report said. “This is a powerful illustration of how important this protection is to technical advancement, and of how businesses need to be able to challenge wrongfully granted rights which create blocks to innovation and competition,” it said. “One interviewee, an arbitrator and former head of legal for an IT supplier, said that he had seen an ‘explosion’ of patent cases.”

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