Skype Technologies SA v Joltid Limited and others [2009] EWHC 2783 (Ch). Anti-suit injunction: Clarification of effect of English exclusive jurisdiction clause in worldwide technology licensing contract

The Court's discretion in granting an anti-suit injunction has been clarified further by the recent decision of Mr Justice Lewison in Skype Technologies SA v Joltid Limited and Others [2009] EWHC 2783 (Ch). Ruling on the Court's willingness to grant an anti-suit injunction where an exclusive jurisdiction clause had been breached, Mr Justice Lewison held that “standard considerations that arise in arguments about forum non conveniens should be given little weight in the face of an exclusive jurisdiction clause where the parties have chosen the courts of a neutral territory in the context of an agreement with world-wide application. Otherwise the exclusive jurisdiction clause would be deprived of its intended effect”. It follows that contracting parties who deliberately select the English courts as a neutral forum in an exclusive jurisdiction clause will not be allowed to “wriggle out” of their agreement, unless the party seeking to commence proceedings in an alternative forum can establish exceptional reasons, outside of ordinary forum non conveniens arguments, to justify why the exclusive jurisdiction clause should be displaced.