CPT's Page on Global and Regional E-Commerce Fora

Hague Conference on Private International Law

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO))

World Trade Organization (WTO))

United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

December 9, 1999. Recommendation of the OECD Council Concerning Guidelines for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce.
December 9, 1999. International Guidelines for Consumer Protection in E-Commerce Issues by OECD.
October 12-13, 1999. OECD Forum on Electronic Commerce, Paris.

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA))

International Organization for Standardization (ISO))

The ISO's Committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO) held a workshop on consumer protection in Kyoto, Japan on May 22, 2000.
May 22, 2000. Consumer protection in the global marketplace: Using standards as a safeguard.
Workshop programme (.pdf format).
March 24, 2000. ITU joings MoU on electronic business in support of e-commerce. ISO press release.

United States Trade Negotiations

March 2, 2001. Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Fact Sheet (.pdf format) for the "Information-Technology Expert-Level Meeting Under the Enhanced Initiative on Deregulation and Competition Policy", Tokyo, Japan. This meeting between "United States and Japanese government officials" focused on "U.S. proposals to promote a more information-technology (IT) friendly regulatory environment in Japan." According to the fact sheet,

"The United States urged the Japanese Government to take a number of measures in this area, including ... clarifying its laws to ensure that the personal use exception for copying is not abused in the digital environment; and protecting business method patents."
October 24, 2000. Memorandum of Understanding on Issues Related to the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Under the Agreement Between the United States and Jordan on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area. The MoU contains the following provision:

"5. Jordan shall take all steps necessary to clarify that the exclusion from patent protection of 'mathematical methods' in Article 4(B) of Jordan's Patent Law does not include such 'methods' as business methods or computer-related inventions."

Questions, comments and suggestions to Vergil Bushnell vbushnell@cptech.org

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