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By: Dale Schafer, Esq A San Francisco court ordered arbitration, and stayed a superior court action, in a dispute between Christopher Lynch, a cannabis plant breeder, and Node Labs et al, over the purchase of Lynch’s intellectual property and employment with defendants. The purchase and employment agreements contained arbitration agreements for any disputes and the defendants wanted the disputes arbitrated, not litigated in the courts. Arbitration agreements are common in the industry and they generally require arbitration of all disputes. California does not allow for arbitration of certain disputes, such as complaints for discrimination involving governmental agencies, but generally requires arbitration of disputes if the parties sign arbitration agreements. Additionally, arbitration is not public and can be required to remain confidential. It’s important to remember that this stage of the litigation involves allegations that have not yet been proven. Since this case will now be arbitrated, future steps in the resolution process will not be public so what actually happened here will not be known outside of the parties.
