Arbitration or Litigation? How to Choose the Right Forum for Your Commercial Disputes
Key takeaways • The choice is made when you sign: Arbitration depends on agreement. Once a valid arbitration clause covers a dispute, an English court must stay court proceedings brought in breach of it, save in narrow cases. • Neither forum is always better: Arbitration offers privacy, a choice of decision-maker and easier enforcement in many countries. Litigation offers public precedent, powers
Can a Court Make You Mediate? ADR After Churchill and the 2024 Rule Changes
Key takeaways Yes, it can: Since Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil in 2023, the English courts have had the power to order parties to engage in mediation or another form of ADR, or to pause proceedings while they do so. The rules now say so: Since 1 October 2024, the Civil Procedure Rules expressly allow the court to order ADR and
Can You Challenge an Arbitral Award in England?
Key takeaways Three routes only: An award made in an English-seated arbitration can be challenged for lack of jurisdiction, for serious irregularity causing substantial injustice, or by appeal on a point of English law, which the parties can exclude. The bar is high: The courts intervene only in extreme cases. Getting the facts or the law wrong is not, by
Can You Use Copyright Material to Train AI? What Businesses Need to Know in the UK, EU and US
Key takeaways UK: Commercial AI training generally requires a licence or an applicable exception. The UK text-and-data-mining exception covers only non-commercial research, and the Government has stepped back from introducing a broader exception. EU: Text and data mining of lawfully accessible material is permitted for commercial purposes unless the rightsholder has opted out, and providers of general-purpose AI models have
Will Your Judgment or Arbitral Award Be Enforced Abroad?
Key takeaways Think about enforcement first: The right forum depends on where the counterparty’s assets are. A winning judgment or award is only as valuable as your ability to enforce it there. Arbitral awards travel well: Awards made in England can usually be enforced in the many countries party to the New York Convention, on limited grounds for refusal. Court
Limitation of Liability in Technology Contracts: What Businesses Need to Know
Key takeaways Words decide outcomes: English courts generally hold commercial parties to the risk allocation they agreed. Recent technology cases show that small drafting differences can change recoverable damages by millions of pounds. Three moving parts: Most clauses exclude certain types of loss, cap what remains, and carve out liabilities that sit outside the cap. Each needs to be drafted,
Investing in an AI Company: Does It Actually Own Its Technology?
Key takeaways Chain of title: Founders, contractors and external CTOs own what they create unless they have signed a written assignment. Gaps are common in early-stage AI companies and are best closed before completion. What is really owned: Much of an AI company’s technology may be licensed rather than owned, including foundation models, open-weight models and open-source software. Their terms
Who Owns AI-Generated Content? Copyright in AI Outputs in the UK, EU and US
Key takeaways UK: The UK expressly protects “computer-generated” works with no human author in the traditional sense, but how this applies to generative AI is uncertain, and the Government has proposed removing the protection. US: US copyright law requires a human author. Purely AI-generated material is not protected, although human selection, arrangement or modification of AI output can be. EU:
