Things every client should understand about intellectual property disputes

Litigation

Notwithstanding the recent popularity of various forms of alternative dispute resolution (e.g., mediation, arbitration), for many companies, the preferred mode of dispute resolution, for sizeable cases in which informal discussion has been ineffective, continues to be federal or state court litigation. Court proceedings are regularly lambasted by the popular press, but the fact remains that, if you are a client confronted with an expensive and complex dispute who desires (a) a structured and organized dispute resolution mechanism; with (b) numerous procedural safeguards to ensure fairness it’s hard to beat court litigation proceedings, as these feature processes, procedures and safeguards that have been developed literally over hundreds of years.

Thus, if speed is critical, it probably makes sense to consider one or more alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms such as mediation, arbitration and the like. However, if accuracy is critical (i.e., you really need a just result even if it takes a little longer), then there really is much to commend federal or state court litigation if informal dispute resolutions have been confirmed as ineffective for the dispute at hand.