“Who’s in Charge Here? Federal Circuit Says An Arbitrator, not District Court, Should Decide Arbitrability”

Matthew Hurley of Mintz has this article in the National Law Review, discussing the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in ROHM Semiconductor USA, LLC v. MaxPower Semiconductor, where, as the article notes, the court followed established precedent to hold that “an arbitrator, not a federal district court, should decide whether a dispute arising from a technology license is subject to mandatory arbitration.” As the court explained, “[v]irtually all courts to consider the question, including this court, have concluded that, in contracts between sophisticated parties, incorporation of rules with a provision on the subject is normally sufficient ‘clear and unmistakable’ evidence of the parties’ intent to delegate arbitrability to an arbitrator.”