electronic Publishing Jurisdictional Issues

Jurisdictional issues are another legal area for EP. Some estimates contend that U.S. based corporations are losing $60 billion annually because of intellectual property infringement. As a result, the U.S. government, along with other countries, is trying to achieve a global standard for intellectual property law.

• The World Intellectual Property Organization
  Jurisdictional restrictions do not protect patents. Under international laws, a patent has to be secured in every country in which the patent holder intends to do business. To promote invention and protect intellectual property, 116 countries have organized an administration called the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO attempts to promote technology sharing among member countries, especially the lesser-developed ones. It also administers two treaties, the Berne Treaty and the Paris Convention, both of which are multinational agreements governing the management of intellectual property.
  The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the seventeen specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world." WIPO currently has 188 member states, administers 26 international treaties, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The current Director-General of WIPO is Francis Gurry, who took office on October 1, 2008. 186 of the UN Members as well as the Holy See are Members of WIPO. Non-members are the states of South Sudan, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tuvalu, and the states with limited recognition. Palestine has observer status.

As computer crime proliferates, computer thieves disperse around the globe. Catching these thieves is often thwarted by international borders. Laws are territorial; they can only be applied within the jurisdiction of the body that issued them. Jurisdictional issues are difficult enough to resolve within a country, and more difficult across international borders.

• International Jurisdiction
  The Web can link computers from many countries with no regard for national or international boundaries. Advancements in telecommunications have allowed information to be shared worldwide. This sharing creates problems because of different intellectual property laws. For example, users in the U.S. can access information in other sovereign countries that, if obtained in the U.S., would violate intellectual property rights. These foreign sites often provide the same information at a lower price, so the U.S. user would naturally be attracted to them.
• Hackers and Jurisdiction
  There are a few well-known cases about crackers breaking into commercial and government computers. Because the crackers were working from Europe, U.S. authorities could monitor their activities, but could not apprehend them because their jurisdiction did not extend into Europe. Eventually, the crackers were apprehended in their home countries (with cooperation from U.S. authorities), and stood trial on the grounds of conducting unwarranted and malicious espionage on foreign soil.
• Non-U.S. Patents
Patents are, of course, available in other countries as well as in the United States. For example, one may apply for and obtain a patent in almost any country in the world. One may file a first application almost anywhere in the world, follow up with applications in other countries within 1 year of filing the first application, and obtain the first application’s filing date as a priority date. Besides filing in individual countries, there are several regional areas in which applications can be made.
These include the European Patent Convention, the members of which include former republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) .

The U.S. Constitution requires that for one state's court to have jurisdiction over a nonresident party, that party must have had "minimum contacts" with the court's state. An important element of "minimum contacts" is that the nonresident "purposely established" contacts and "created continuing relationships and obligations with the citizens of another state."

• How does "minimum contacts" work on the Internet?
  How do these jurisdictional issues work on the Internet, where the participating parties may not come in physical contact? Interestingly, the courts have held that physical presence is not a prerequisite for jurisdiction. That is, under particular circumstances, Internet presence alone can be sufficient to grant jurisdiction to a nonresident. To protect a site against lawsuits from other states, do not advertise that products are available nationwide if some jurisdictions could be expected to consider them illegal. The next lesson wraps up this module.