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WIPO Presents Best Practices Report to Technology Consortium

Geneva, May 18, 2001
Press Releases PR/2001/268

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center (Center) and the Application Service Provider Industry Consortium (ASPIC), a non-profit international consortium made up of the world's leading technology companies, have jointly finalized a set of best practices and guidelines for dispute avoidance and resolution for the Application Service Provider (ASP) industry. The guidelines and best practices are tailored to meet the needs of the application service provider community. The final report was presented by Mr. Francis Gurry, WIPO Assistant Director General, to Mr. Traver Gruen-Kennedy, ASPIC Chairman, in Geneva today.
Mr. Francis Gurry (on left), WIPO Assistant Director General, receives on behalf of WIPO the ASPire World Achievement Award for Outstanding Service and Contribution to the ASP Industry from Mr. Traver Gruen-Kennedy (on right), outgoing ASPIC Chairman. From left to right: Mr. Francis Gurry, WIPO Assistant Director General, Mr. Traver Gruen-Kennedy, outgoing ASPIC Chairman, and Ms. Paula Hunter, ASPIC Chairman.

Also in Geneva today, on behalf of ASPIC, Mr. Gruen-Kennedy presented to WIPO the ASPire World Achievement Award for Outstanding Service and Contribution to the ASP Industry. The Award was made in recognition of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center's work to develop a series of dispute avoidance and resolution best practices. Mr. Gurry confirmed the Center's readiness to provide dispute resolution services to contracting parties in the ASP supply chain through the Center's recently established ASP Dispute Resolution Service.

ASPs deliver and manage applications and computing services from remote data centers to multiple users via the Internet or a private network. For application users, obtaining mission critical applications from an outside supplier provides a cost-effective solution to the demands of system ownership, such as up-front capital expenses, implementation challenges and a continuing need for system administration and maintenance, upgrades and customization. Using an ASP model, small and medium sized organizations have the possibility of deploying business applications that would otherwise involve massive investments in software, deployment time and IT personnel.

Since its establishment in June 1999 by 25 of the world's leading technology companies, more than 700 companies in 30 countries have joined the ASP Industry Consortium. The consortium's mission is to promote the application service provider industry by sponsoring research, promoting best practices and articulating the strategic and measurable benefits of ASP as a new computing delivery model. To accomplish this, ASPIC provides common definitions for the industry, serves as a forum for the discussion of issues, sponsors industry research, fosters guidelines, and promotes best practices, among other activities.

ASPIC recognized from the very outset the importance of effective dispute avoidance and resolution mechanisms to helping parties realize their commercial goals. Encouraged by the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center's successes in the area of Internet domain name dispute resolution, ASPIC approached the Center in February 2000 to explore potential areas of co-operation. The Consortium's Board subsequently requested the Center's assistance in developing guidelines for dispute avoidance and settlement specifically geared towards the ASP industry.

A Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Team (DART), headed by WIPO, was set up and comprised fifteen ASPIC members who provided input in defining industry best practices and illustrated the model and its relevant points of concern. The ASPIC members also enacted a survey within the ASP industry on service level agreements. The ASPIC members provided important insight into the nature of the ASP value chain and the particulars of dispute resolution possibilities therein.

There are a number of areas in information technology relationships, such as those that characterize the ASP model, out of which disputes might arise, including software or hardware performance, quality or function, project management performance, copyright and proprietary rights infringement, service failure, and loss of data or data integrity. Because of the "one-to-many" delivery model, an ASP's liability exposure in each of these and other areas is multiplied several-fold. Particularly in a cross-border international relationship, the commercial and legal risks increase significantly, as does the potential for conflict arising from different legal systems, different commercial and legal cultures, and language and cultural differences. The quick and cost-efficient resolution of disputes, together with effective dispute avoidance strategies, is fundamental to the success of the ASP industry.

Established in 1994, the Geneva-based WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has rapidly developed a reputation for providing dispute resolution services relating to the Internet and electronic commerce. Aside from offering traditional arbitration and mediation services, the WIPO Center is recognized as the leading dispute resolution service provider for domain name disputes. To-date, more than 2,500 domain name cases have been filed with the Center by trademark holders seeking to wrest back their Internet identity from alleged Internet pirates or "cybersquatters".

For further information, please contact the Media Relations and Public Affairs Section at WIPO:

  • Tel: (+41 22) 338 81 61 or (+41 22) 338 95 47;
  • Fax: (+41 22) 338 88 10;
  • E-mail: publicinf@wipo.int
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