The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that, because Oracle incorporated international trade rules into a contract with a European mobile software firm, an arbitrator will decide whether an IP dispute between the two companies is subject to arbitration.
"This is an issue of first impression in the Ninth Circuit," Judge Morgan Christen wrote for a unanimous panel, holding that incorporation of United Nations arbitration rules constitutes "clear and unmistakable evidence that the parties to an agreement intended to arbitrate questions of arbitrability."
