Master Guide to Patent Mediation

This Master Guide to Patent Mediation provides a five-step roadmap for helping in-house counsel and corporate leaders utilize mediation, when appropriate, a strategy proven to substantially reduce the cost of patent disputes. Patent Mediation presents a special case for alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) techniques.

To respond to this need, CPR established a blue ribbon International Commission on Patent Disputes made up of corporate intellectual property experts. Our analysis began with the observation that ADR is grossly underutilized in the intellectual property arena and, when used, often arises late in the process after significant costs have already been incurred. Further, the success of ADR is generally hampered by a failure to understand and address the economic complexities associated with intellectual property licensing. The Commission’s mandate was to study the applicability of ADR techniques to patent disputes and to recommend reforms to the ADR process that would encourage litigants to resolve their disputes in an ADR forum. The Mediation Sub-committee produced this monograph intended to serve as a primer for in-house counsel and corporate decision makers seeking new and innovative ways to address patent disputes. 

(2004)   38 pages