208. The representative of Australia recalled that in July 1999 his delegation had submitted a paper on electronic commerce, shortly before the Council's previous progress report. Electronic commerce was one of the most important issues confronting policy-makers in the intellectual property field. The presentation by the WIPO highlighted that this was a fast-moving area, and that there had been a range of developments since the TRIPS Agreement had been concluded. It was incumbent on the Council to keep track of those developments and respond to them. His delegation would update its paper to take account of developments in the meantime and re-circulate it. Nonetheless, he reminded the Council that its main proposal related to the general applicability of intellectual property principles and the TRIPS objectives to the realm of electronic commerce. It considered the distinctive features of intellectual property in the digital environment and the challenges for enforcement and particularly border measures under the TRIPS Agreement; it highlighted the importance of international cooperation relating to enforcement in line with Article 69 and the jurisdictional issues raised by the representative of the WIPO in his intervention. It considered the impact of some of the development issues, such as access to new technologies and the role of electronic commerce technology in intellectual property administration. Finally, it considered some of the substantive legal issues that had arisen in the context of electronic commerce, in particular concerning copyright standards, and the possible relationship of the TRIPS Agreement to the 1996 WIPO Treaties that represented extensions of the Berne Convention; and the issue of distinctive signs such as trademarks, geographical indications and the names of international organizations and the possibility of extending the TRIPS Agreement's standards in the internet environment, not only in relation to domain names but also general use on the Internet.
