Hong Kong has now enacted amendments to its Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609), clarifying that disputes over intellectual property rights (IPRs) may be resolved by arbitration and that it is not contrary to Hong Kong public policy to enforce arbitral awards involving IPRs.
The bill effecting the amendments, Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 2016 (Bill), was first introduced in December 2016 and was passed in substantially the same form on 14 June 2017. For more detail, see our previous blog post containing a summary of the main provisions of the Bill here. The amendments are due to come into operation on 1 October 2017.
This is a positive development that should progress the Hong Kong Government's stated aim of achieving an edge over other jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region as a venue for settling IPR disputes.