Baseball arbitration: how the ACLP guarantees a licensing agreement
Baseball arbitration is the mechanism used by the ACLP to guarantee that a patent holder and a license applicant always reach a licensing agreement. The guarantee to get a license is one of the cornerstones of the platform, ensuring fair practices in the negotiation process related to the royalty fee, no matter the size of the Parties (SMEs can also benefit from free legal assistance). Indeed, negotiating the royalty fee is the only part of the licensing system that is left open to the Parties, as a standard license agreement has been agreed upon by all members.
Arbitrators have been carefully selected for their long-term expertise and experience in the field of the seeds and traits business (including breeding, trait development and/or licensing thereof) in the Territory of the ACLP. After careful review of their CVs, each arbitrator has been nominated by the Board of the ACLP. However, during an arbitration case, a Party can ask for the withdrawal of an arbitrator in case of alleged conflict of interest.
The list of arbitrators and arbitration rules are publicly available on the dedicated webpage.
