The Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) is pleased to collaborate with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Arbitration and Mediation Center (WIPO Center) in a partnership to promote the use of mediation in the IP and technology sector.   

 Under the agreement, the WIPO Center and SIMC will join hands on areas of common interest. One area is case administration – this will potentially see both centers drawing on their respective strengths and successes, to help businesses resolve disputes successfully. Another area is raising awareness and education of mediation as an important tool to resolve IP and technology-related disputes.

 The collaboration responds to the urgent need to address the numerous forms of disputes that have arisen in the IP and technology sector, given the growing pervasiveness of technology. These include disagreements relating to IP, licensing, franchising and distribution agreements, research and development, and technology transfer agreements. Many of these disputes arise in Asia and are often of high risk and high value.  

 To address the negative impact of IP and technology-related disputes, both centers will explore synergies, leveraging their track records. The WIPO Center has administered over 740 mediation, arbitration and expert determination cases, mostly filed in recent years. SIMC has administered about 130 mediations to-date and is seeing growing interest in the mediation of IP and technology-related disputes.

(Source: Singapore International Mediation Centre)