Kevin Nachtrab
Senior IP Patent Attorneym Johnson & Johnson (Europe), Brussels, Belgium

Having chosen to resolve your issues by use of Mediation/Arbitration to, among other reasons, save costs and time, you are now faced with the problem of having to expend just such costs and just such time to seek enforcement of the judgment and award that you have secured. One weakness of Arbitration proceedings is that, generally speaking, arbitrators have no legal power to enforce their judgments and awards. While most arbitral awards are voluntarily complied with by the parties, this is not always the case. In those instances when one of the parties does not voluntarily comply with an arbiter’s judgment and award, then the other party must seek, judicial intervention to enforce it.