Comparative Study on Civil Mediation and Apple v. Samsung: Mediation in Intellectual Property Disputes

In 2011, Apple’s accusation of Samsung for infringing Apple’s major copyrights sparked the ongoing legal confrontation between the two major IT figures. The lawsuit in California involved mediation which is now widely accepted as an effective means to resolve disputes,especially IP cases. This article accounts for civil mediation in general and focuses on the differences between the US Mandatory Mediation Program for the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit and the Ninth Circuit Mediation Program, Hong Kong Court-Annexed Mediation and Korea’s Civil Mediation. The article also introduces mediation in IP along with the requirements in Mandatory (IP) Mediation at the US Courts of Appeal for the Federal Circuit and the Lanham Act Mediation Program, IP mediation In Hong Kong and many Korean ADR Commissions specializing in IP related matters.