Intellectual property can have enormous value and is often an important asset on a company's balance sheet. As intellectual property plays an everincreasing role in the world economy, disputes over intellectual property ownership, validity, licensing, infringement etc. are also likely to become more frequent. Parties of different nationalities will inevitably be involved in these disputes and so international arbitration will increasingly provide an attractive option for intellectual property dispute resolution. The aim of this paper is to give a brief overview of the benefits of taking intellectual property disputes to arbitration as opposed to having them decided in the courts, to explain some of the difficulties of arbitrating intellectual property questions and to introduce some of the features of the Arbitration Rules adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organisation that are especially useful in arbitration proceedings
