February 2011

E-commerce has been defined as 'the production, distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods and services by electronic means.' The World Trade Organization (WTO) has adopted a declaration on global electronic commerce on 20th May 1998 at Second Ministerial Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, and a work program has adopted by World Trade Organization General Council on 25 September 1998 and the same is under further negotiation as per paragraph 34 of the Doha Declaration adopted on 14 November 2001.
The first official recognition to e-commerce originated from Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which was adopted in the First Ministerial Conference of WTO Members in Singapore on 13 September 1996. The real revolution in e-commerce is with the advent of internet but its crude and early version started with telephone and today it is based upon six different instruments namely Telephone (call centers), Fax, Television, Electronic Payment and Money Transfer System, Electronic Data interchange and the Internet.

The core of cross border supply and services (outsourcing) as BPO or KPO is through the General Agreement on Trade Related Services (GATS), which was adopted by World Trade Organization members on 14 April 1994 and the commitments made by the members for free market access under Mode-I which provides the basic platform for e-commerce and is facilitated through Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Today, practically we are living in a borderless world where a larger part of the commercial transactions are taking place in the form of digital goods just by a click which enables downloading of software, music, database and other relevant information, reports and the payment is also enabled by digital means in fraction of seconds. Therefore, the question of protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) becomes all the more relevant. The Trade Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of WTO and the various Conventions under the aegis of WIPO provide the legal framework to regulate and mandate compliance of various laws by the member countries in order to facilitate the commercial transactions including transfer of technology across the globe through e-commerce. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN), a non-profit organisation formed in 1998 deals with several issues on internet protocols (IP) and internet domain names on the guidelines of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy which took effect on January, 1, 2000. There are other organizations such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), which look after setting of various standards for operation of E-commerce. The complexities sometimes arise on determination of the nature of transaction as to whether it amounts to sales of goods or services and also in relation to the nature of intellectual property transferred in case of sale of a software or music as to whether it is transfer of goods or transfer of intellectual property rights besides the problem of counterfeiting and cyber crimes.

E-commerce or e-business is a strategy for growth by automating the old business models with the aid of technology to maximize customer value. It is the process of buying and selling over digital and improving e-business relationship with existing and potential customers. E-commerce enables creating a business portal where the different buyers and sellers can meet and register their proposal for buying and selling. It is an easy way for a buyer to place orders to the vendors and to make payment by cheque or credit cards and thereby reduce the processing time for business transactions. The daily sale of Dell Computer is around US$ 20 million through web which is more than 25% of its total sales. E-bay and Amazon.com are the other successful stories of e-commerce. In India, MSTC, a government company handles a turnover of more than US$ 1 billion through its ecommerce portal including e-auction. E commerce is also eco-friendly as the cost of printing brochure and catalogues are zero.

E-commerce has different types. It may be Business-to-Customer (B2C), Business-to-Business (B2B), Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) but almost 80% of the e-commerce takes place through B2B model. Almost 2% of all retail sales in Canada and 6% in US take place through e-commerce valuing approximately US$ 35 billion in Canada and US$ 150 billion in US annually. E-commerce transactions are secured by various software and network devices, viz. Firewall, Encryption, Digital Certifications and Digital Signatures. ITAG is in the process of providing whole range of IPR services through its e-commerce portal.

- Dr. D. R. Agarwal