Intellectual property in e-commerce committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in cooperation with the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) organized yesterday, in Amman Chamber of Commerce, a lecture in which Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman of the Committee and President of ASIP, spoke about the concept of intellectual property in e-commerce.
Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh talked about the concept and importance of e-commerce and the radical enormous transformation it caused in the international trading system, stressing that the areas of e-commerce are amazing and their importance increases day after day, where e-commerce market exceed $ 1 trillion.
He pointed out that by 2005 the number of Internet users will exceed one billion which is six times the number of users in 1999, which amounted to 171 million.
On the geographic distribution of Internet users around the world, Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh indicated that the Internet and e-commerce so far are American phenomena and, therefore, since the Internet emerged as a U.S. government network then the majority of its users will be American and that more than 90% of Internet content is in English. However, the Internet is turning into a global phenomenon; while much more than 50% of Internet users are now outside the United States, and it is expected that by the next year global exchanges of goods in e-commerce will be higher than the American exchange in the same area. Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh anticipated that by 2003 the number of Internet users in Europe will exceed 100 million, in Latin America 24.3 million and in the Arab countries 6 million, but by 2005 it is expected that the rate of Web users from all countries of the world except the United States of America will be 70% from the total number of users. Thus, the Internet and e-commerce are truly global phenomena regardless of their American origin.
Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh emphasized that with the increasing importance of e-commerce the importance of intellectual property also increases, intellectual property has become one of the main topics in modern economic policies where the wealth now is more related to the intellectual output more than the physical aspects. He added that the knowledge economy has begun, where the real wealth lies in knowledge and where the real key to achieving wealth is knowledge.
He added that although e-commerce offers a wide modern range of trade in investing intellectual resources, it increases the risks and challenges faced by intellectual property rights. Those challenges are practical, technical, and philosophical, so some believe that the traditional concepts of intellectual property are not sufficient to conform to the challenges of e-commerce and therefore, modern intellectual property rights must be created. Others believe that the intellectual property laws are no longer applicable and they should not be valid in the space-age, but the ongoing developments are about to put an end to such extreme ideas. He also said that intellectual property is one of the most precious commodities in the world and as a result of that, it has led to many conflicts in the area of e-commerce.
Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh called for greater international cooperation through various bodies such as the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the World Trade Organization WTO and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)...etc.
Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his conviction that this must be the first arrangement within our priorities and that we should leave aside the complex issues regarding conflicts at the global level of international bodies such as ICANN, WIPO and UNICTRAL. Our priorities must focus on intellectual property laws and the administration.
Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh warned not to ignore global matters and called on Arabs to play a greater role in global organizations, because we are still, in the Arab world, in need of Arab participation in international bodies.