Insights

Washington – June 6, 2024: Intellectual Asset Management recognized Crowell & Moring in its IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners guide, awarding the firm a gold band ranking as one of the top three firms handling patent litigation and transactions in Belgium, and a silver ranking for the firm’s Chicago office. The firm was also recommended nationally in the United States for trade secrets litigation. This marks the eleventh consecutive year that the firm has been ranked in the guide in Belgium.

Washington – January 10, 2024: Crowell & Moring has published Litigation Forecast 2024: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The 12th-annual Litigation Forecast focuses on trends in intellectual property, regulatory and other U.S. litigation, with special coverage of supply chain recovery and international litigation.

On 18 September 2024, the UK Supreme Court handed down its judgment in UniCredit Bank GmbH v RusChemAlliance LLC [2024] UKSC 30.  The judgment considers several significant issues relevant to international arbitration.  Primarily, though, it reaffirms: (i) the English court’s strong support for arbitration, in general; (ii) the steps it is prepared to take to hold parties to their agreement to arbitrate; and (iii) the current position for determining the governing law of an arbitration agreement, in the absence of an express election by the parties.

In the recent English High Court judgment Gerald Metals S.A. v Timis & Ors [2016] EWHC 2327 (Ch), Mr Justice Leggatt provided the first guidance regarding the interaction of the Court’s powers to grant interim or conservatory measures in support of arbitration with the provisions for emergency measures in arbitration. Such emergency provisions, including expedited appointment of arbitration tribunals and emergency arbitrators, have proliferated among institutional rules in recent years. His guidance suggests that, where arbitral rules provide for such procedures, but the arbitral institution has declined to activate them in support of a party’s application, the English Court will now be loath to interpose its own measures.

In late December 2013, it was reported that the Supreme Court had refused permission to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal in Secretary of State for Health and others v Servier Laboratories Ltd and others; National Grid Electricity Transmission plc v ABB Ltd and others [2013] EWCA Civ 1234. In so doing, Britain's highest court brought to an end a recent line of litigation concerning a problem which had caused headaches for investigators, litigators, and the English court itself for some years. Surprisingly, perhaps, this problem was a result of a piece of French domestic legislation, the so-called Blocking Statute. 

It’s a whole new ball game for European patent ligation: The Unified Patent Court opened for business on June 1, 2023.

The Eleventh Annual Juris Conferences’ Investment Treaty Arbitration Conference will tackle the complex developments raised by investor-state arbitration and its intersection with international investments in the technology sector. Although there have only been a few investment cases touching on issues related to the technology sector, with continued international integration and the rise of product piracy, counterfeiting, issues related to IP rights, cybersecurity, and the internet of things, international trade and investment disputes may be inevitable in the years to come. A group of eight authors again take contrary positions and grapple with the dramatic developments of investment arbitration as it relates to technology, intellectual property and investor-state arbitration. The expert faculty will then continue the debate following the original contributions from the authors for what always proves to be highly entertaining. This conference will be of great value to practitioners, industry counsel, and academics alike who are interested in these important cutting-edge issues.

Since 2003, Venezuela has maintained strict controls on the exchange of the local currency (bolívares) into hard currency. As a result, companies doing business in Venezuela are finding their revenue earned in the country to be stranded there and unable to be repatriated, leaving them in arrears with overseas vendors and creditors.  While oil prices keep falling and the Venezuela economy worsens, the government has adopted measures reportedly intended to allow companies to repatriate their funds. However, such measures appear uncertain and risk causing a substantial devaluation of Venezuela’s local currency. Depending on how companies have structured their investments into Venezuela, they may be able to use international investment agreements (IIAs) to seek a negotiated solution or pursue international arbitration against Venezuela to recover their funds.