IP Arbitration and Mediation - Resolve your business, intellectual property, copyright, trademarks, DMCA, trade secret, software, right of publicity, entertainment law, breach of contract, and internet and domain name disputes through Vondran Alternative Dispute Resolution (“VondranADR”).
Save money, save time avoiding the Courts. Many cases can be resolved through ZOOM without having to leave your home or office. Since 2004 we have helped thousands of clients resolve their legal disputes. Call us at (877) 276-5084.
2024 ADR Update: Steve Vondran, Esq. has been retained as an expert in a copyright infringement case.
2023 Updates: We have been selected to serve as Arbitrator in torts claim in Arizona.
2021 Arbitration Updates: We served as arbitrator in a hotly contested Arizona personal injury case.
Introduction
Click here to review
Many people assume all disputes must go through the Courts. "I will sue you in federal court in the Northern District of California." This is not true. Many cases settle without having to go to court (private dispute resolution) or having to face a stressful jury trial. The new legal trend is to settle cases in private arbitration or mediation, in fact, many contracts REQUIRE IT, and more and more federal judges are pushing litigants to private mediation or ENE (early neutral evaluations) to help parties understand the pros and cons of litigation.
There is a good reason for this. For example, the litigation process can be:
(a) time-consuming (court cases can drag on for years);
(b) stressful (are we winning? are we losing? do I have to appear in court? What, they want to take my deposition?)
(c) expensive (“the attorneys make all the money” or "how much is this going to cost me"), See typical federal court fees.
and
(d) public in nature (embarrassing depending on the case and can be bad for business reputation).
These things are not beneficial for most clients who are faced with the prospects of a long drawn out fight dealing with a business, intellectual property, privacy, software internet dispute (ex. UDRP domain dispute, apple mobile app store disputes, cybersquatters (and reverse domain name hijackers - like aggressive attorneys trying to steal your domain names by force), software licensing disputes or internet file sharing cases with Strike 3 Holdings adult porn download cases for example), or other dispute. There must be a better way say some people, AND IN FACT, THEY ARE RIGHT!
Sometimes, it makes good sense to look at possible ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (“ADR”) OPTIONS which normally refers to mediation and arbitration or ENE. We can help both individual persons and businesses, large and small, who are involved in legal disputes such as software piracy, photo infringement, copyright infringement, breach of contract, DMCA disputes, right of publicity misappropriation claims in California, UDRP domain name disputes and more. MANY OF THESE TYPES OF TECHNOLOGY LAW CLAIMS CAN BE HANDLED LESS EXPENSIVELY AND OUT OF COURT!!
We handle cases in both California and Arizona with offices serving Maricopa county, (2 offices in Phoenix - Silicon Desert) Santa Monica ("Los Angeles"), Orange County (Newport Beach), San Diego, and San Francisco - serving Silicon valley and and San Jose areas and cases anywhere in the United States that deal with Federal Intellectual Property Law (Trademarks and Copyrights) subject to the local rules of admission authorized by the Federal courts. We have appeared in New York and Texas federal courts in additional to California and Arizona. We have appeared in over 200 cases since 2004.
BONUS MATERIALS: Click here to view our blog on Top tips to win at mediation! People have been loving this video, make sure to SUBSCRIBE to join over 21,000 other subscribers!
Watch Attorney Steve® Explain the AAA Arbitration Process
Attorney Steve Online Mediation (why leave your desk?)
The typical mediator handles a wide variety of legal disputes. In a mediation, the parties typically submit a brief outlining their legal positions, setting forth the facts, and letting the other side know what they want. It is the mediator's job to read the briefs, understand the positions of the parties, research the legal positions, and then hammer both sides pointing weaknesses of both sides case (i.e. The risks of not settling the case and highlighting the benefits of settling a case). Many mediators I have dealt with are poor at the process and have charged 1,000's of dollars for a service that produces no results.
Thus, I believe it is IMPERATIVE that you have a strong mediator that is not LAZY and who is SKILLED and who can BRING THE PARTIES TOGETHER by finding COMMON GROUND and HOT-BUTTONS that will compel people to settle their disputes and move on with life where settlement terms are satisfactory. Legal disputes can cause stress and prolonged stress can take a toll on your health and your being. We help people RESOLVE disputes before they get out of hand, where possible.
To submit your case for consideration for an upcoming Attorney Steve® Mediation, call (877) 276-5084 and tell us about your dispute or emails us through our contact form.
PODCAST - Arizona Compulsory Arbitration
Choice of Law Conflicts
Nowadays, many companies are dealing with out of state companies and even companies outside the United States. Often, when NDA's and contracts get drafted and exchanged, you will see a "choice of law" clause. For example, if one company is from New York and one company is from San Francisco, California or Los Angeles, let's say, each company typically wants all disputes heard in their state. So, for example the California company may put in a Calfornia choice of law provision (all disputes heard in CA courts), and the NY company may object and want NY law. Well, what do you do then? You want to be mutually fair. One thing you can do is to put in a Vondran Online ADR Clause in your contract to balance the needs and interests of both parties. For example:
"The Parties to this Agreement agree that any disputes that arise under this Agreement will be heard by Vondran Online ADR ("VOADR"). The Parties will submit their dispute in writing including filing a brief and presenting any evidence that may exist. _____________ law will be the prevailing law (ex. California or New York), typically whoever has the most bargaining power. If mediation does not resolve the case, the Parties agree that VOADR will render a binding decision following online arbitration and the Parties agree to allow their local courts to enter and enforce any judgment."
This clause, and the rules of mediation / arbitration can be agreed upon in advance. Call us for more information at (877) 276-5084.
Standard Arbitration Clause (Options)
Parties can provide for any or all of the following in their agreements to mediate or arbitrate
- Number of arbitrators (for example, 1 arbitrator will hear the case or a 3 panel board)
- Arbitrators Qualifications (ex. arbitrator must have 20 years verifiable intellectual property experience)
- Governing Law (See choice of law above)
- Discovery (what type of discovery is allowed - example depositions, interrogatories, request for production of documents)
- Duration of Arbitration Proceedings (for example, the hearing will not exceed 5 days)
- Remedies that may apply (ex. a liquidated damages clause, punitive damages, actual damages in a copyright case, etc.)
- Payment or winning party Attorneys' Fees
- Opinion to accompany the award? (meaning, the arbitrator is required to render a written opinion or not)
- Confidentiality (final decision/award is confidential)
- Non-disparagement agreement (internet postings)
- Non-Payment of Arbitrator fees (what happens)
- Appeal rights (or binding nature)
PODCAST: Basic overview of the difference between mediation and arbitration!
Types of entertainment & intellectual property disputes we may handle:
Software audits (disputes and EULA license compliance issues with VB Conversion, Autodesk, CNC, Vero, Siemens, Microsoft, Adobe, SIIA, Software Compliance Group, and others)
Copyright infringement disputes (font infringement, jewelry, art, photography, music, film, video and more)
Right of publicity matters (using your name, image, and likeness for commercial purpose on the internet or offline publication). CA only.
Breach of Contract (artist disputes, band disputes, actor disputes)
Insurance Claims (Bad faith insurance | Failure to defend | Failure to investigate | Failure to pay benefits owed)
Internet Law / UDRP
Online Defamation Defense / Anti-SLAPP
BitTorrent defense (ex. Malibu Media / Strike 3 Holdings, LLC). We have settled many cases out of court and in court. If you received a letter from California based Bandlow Law Firm, contact us for a free consultation. We are a national leader in peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing copyright infringement defense.
Attorney Steve's Top Tips to Succeed at Mediation or Arbitration!
VIDEO: Click on the picture above to watch a video clip from our popular legal Youtube channel. Make sure to “SUBSCRIBE” for free legal information updates by clicking on the Red “V” for Victory! As we like to say, “be smarter than your friends.” We are now over 13,000 subscribers and approaching TWO MILLION VIDEO VIEWS!!!
About Us
EDUCATION
Cal State Fullerton, B.S. Kinesiology
WhittierLaw School - (Juris Doctorate) specialty certificate in intellectual property (top grade in contracts and entertainment law).
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
For more information about my professional work background check me out on LinkedIn.
Steve Vondran, Esq. can serve as a conflict resolution consultant, mediator or arbitrator and he has over 10 years of civil litigation experience including experience with business, eminent domain, financial elder abuse, real estate licensing and other experience.
AFFILIATIONS
Mr. Vondran is a California (Lic. #232337) and Arizona licensed lawyer (Lic. #025911). He is a member of Orange County Trial Lawyer's Association, Beverly Hills Bar Association, American Bar Association, San Francisco Bar Association, Federalist Society, American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION PHILOSOPHY
In a dispute, each party normally believes they are in the right. And in fact, both parties ARE usually right to a degree, but many times both parties can have unrealistic goals about settlement. A Plaintiff may think their case is with a million dollars for example, while the Defendant may thing the case is only worth $50,000. These are typical disputes. Just what the case is actually worth can be a nebulous concept at times. Mediation is designed to explore these differences and see if any common ground can be reached.
Attorney Steve® Top 5 benefits to settling your case in mediation:
1. Case is almost immediately OVER. No more worrying about court appearances and legal bills.
2. You get to settle on YOUR terms. You get to choose whether or not you want to settle the case, and on what terms. In litigation, you could find yourself or your business stuck with a judge or jury verdict you do not like (which means you then get to spend more time in court, and on appeal).
3. You "stop the bleeding" if you have been paying large attorney fee bills (which are inherent in most litigations)
4. You do not have to worry or stress about potentially losing the case (if it were to proceed).
5. You get to go about your life and do what you do best to make money (i.e. focus on your life and your "highest and best" use as we call it). Opportunity costs.
OUR MEDIATION FEES
Our typical fees for mediation or arbitration range from $2,500-$4,500 per day depending on the location and complexity of the case. An initial retainer fee is required.
YouTube - "Internet Dispute Resolution" ("IDR")
For the “more interesting” types of case, we may be able to mediate the dispute to be broadcast online on our Youtube Channel as part of our Attorney Steve® Mediation Series. This involves submitting your dispute (and getting the other side to agree to appear on video to mediate their dispute). All parties will be required to sign a release allowing us to use the videos (releasing all rights to privacy, publicity, and allowing us unlimited perpetual use of their name, image and likeness). This is in the experimental stage, so email us with questions or show ideas.
Mediation Forms
Sample Confidentiality Agreement
Here is a Mediation confidentiality agreement sample that can be used as an example of how to allow parties to a mediation to keep their communications, document exchanges, and settlement discussions confidential. This is not legal advice but rather a sample document.
When you are discussing settlement offers in mediation or arbitration you want to make sure your offers and discussions don't come back to haunt you as evidence in Court. For example, if you offered to settle a case for $50,000 (when you really wanted $250,000) you don't want your opponent to later come back to court and say “Judge, at mediation he admitted he knew his case was only worth $50,000 and he was willing to settle for that.”
Mediation Disclosure Notification and Acknowledgement
Here is a form to have your Client's sign BEFORE mediation. It's part of a new look that took effect.
SERVICE AREAS | OFFICES
We can handle you entertainment, social media, software and IP mediations and arbitrations in and around the following areas of California and Arizona:
1. San Diego – serving La Jolla, Oceanside and Carlsbad areas.
2. Orange County – serving beach areas, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, Santa Ana, Fullerton, and Anaheim areas.
3. Santa Monica– serving Los Angeles, Manhattan beach, Hermosa beach, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Venice and other cities and towns in Los Angeles County area.
4, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (we do not have an office here but can set up a meeting place)
5. San Francisco – servicing Bay area, Silicon Valley, Mountain View, San Jose, Oakland, East Bay and Berkeley areas.
6. Phoenix, Arizona – servicing Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Peoria, Glendale, Flagstaff, Maricopa, Buckeye, Paradise Valley, Prescott, Camp Verde and other towns and cities in Yuma, Pinal, Coconino, Navajo counties.
Contact us to discuss Vondran ADR services
If you need help with mediation of a case or responding to a demand letter, or law suit, we are an experienced firm (nearly 15 years of litigation experience) and we offer flexible legal fees to help meet the needs of our business and individual clients.
To discuss your case in confidence give us a call at (877) 276-5084 or submit the contact form and we will get back to you.
We look forward to helping your resolve your legal issues as we have done for many other people.
Check out our Avvo reviews here.