The Arbitration (Amendment) Ordinance 2017 (“Amendment Ordinance”) was passed by the Legislative Council on 14 June 2017 and published in the Gazette on 23 June 2017. The Amendment Ordinance amends the Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609) to, among other things, clarify that all disputes over intellectual property rights (“IPRs”) may be resolved by arbitration and that it is not contrary to the public policy of Hong Kong to enforce arbitral awards involving IPRs. Such amendments relating to IPRs arbitration come into effect on 1 January 2018 (except for section 103J which comes into operation upon commencement of section 123 of the Patents (Amendment) Ordinance 2016 on 19 December 2019). For further details, please refer to the links below: