ASP Industry Consortium, World Intellecutal Property Organization Unveil Dispute Avoidance, Resolution Procedures; WIPO Honored by Consortium for Groundbreaking Work.

Business/Technology Editors

GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2001

A year after agreeing to jointly develop a set of global dispute avoidance and resolution procedures for application service providers (ASPs), the ASP Industry Consortium and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today unveiled a comprehensive set of recommendations and guidelines for enacting the process.

"It was one year ago that we stood here in Geneva and announced our plans to work together on something that would help build consumer confidence in what was then still a largely unknown way of delivering computer applications and services," noted Traver Gruen-Kennedy, chairman of the ASP Industry Consortium. "A year later, ASPs have become increasingly common throughout the world, which makes our efforts toward avoiding and resolving ASP business disputes that much more important."

"We are delighted to have completed this successful collaboration with the ASP Industry Consortium. The jointly developed procedures will provide greater certainty about business and legal obligations for the ASP model," said Francis Gurry, WIPO Assistant Director and Director of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), based in Geneva, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is dedicated to promoting the use and protection of intellectual property works. It's Arbitration and Mediation Center, established in 1994, offers arbitration and mediation services for the resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties, and is widely recognized as a leading dispute resolution provider for Internet and information technology disputes involving intellectual property.

In addition to releasing the ASP dispute avoidance and resolution white paper guidelines, Gruen-Kennedy also took the opportunity to present WIPO with the "ASP Industry Consortium Global Achievement Award," honoring the organization's foresight and work in preparing the nascent ASP industry's path toward broader customer adoption. He was joined in presenting the award by Paula Hunter, chief market strategist for Xevo Corp., who this month succeeds Gruen-Kennedy as the ASP Industry Consortium's chairman.

"ASPs represent the future of computing because, among other reasons, they transcend borders with an efficiency and effectiveness required in today's global marketplace," added Gruen-Kennedy, Chief Strategist and Vice President, Strategy at Citrix Systems, Inc. "Cyberspace has no borders, yet the world still operates under a system of cultural and historic borders, meaning a process is required to address business disputes that may occur in a cross-border relationship."

The association between the two groups works well, Gruen-Kennedy said, because the ASP Industry Consortium had the technical expertise to bring to the table, while the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center has the structure to help businesses and their customers both avoid and resolve disputes on an international scale.

The main objective to the jointly developed guidelines, Gruen-Kennedy and Gurry agreed, is to help address ASP contract disputes before they become prevalent. These guidelines are acutely needed, they noted, because lawyers, judges, arbitrators and other "alternative dispute resolution" experts may not necessarily be familiar with the ASP industry and need insight into the unique nature of the ASP supply chain. The guide provides an ASP industry primer, as well as examples of where disputes are likely to occur in the ASP supply chain. It then lays out a series of dispute resolution methods, both in terms of litigation and alternatives to litigation, with advantages, disadvantages and descriptions of commonly used alternative dispute resolution techniques.

Operating under the premise that dispute avoidance is the best remedy to any dispute, the guidelines help describe operational ASP best practices in areas such as problem identification, customer help desk and service level agreements (SLAs), focusing on terms and conditions for the network, host and application components to the supply chain. It also provides recommendations on drafting dispute resolution clauses for typical ASP contracts, taking into account applicable law, the scope of relief and a number of other factors.

Finally, the guide offers advice on management of and insurance protection for the ASP business relationship.

The development of the dispute avoidance and resolution guide incorporated a variety of research, including interviews of senior personnel representing a cross-section of the ASP supply chain; comments submitted through a web-based comment filing system made available via the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center's web site; contacts with experts in alternative dispute resolution knowledgeable about the ASP industry; results of a survey on SLAs conducted for the ASP Industry Consortium Research Committee, in which several questions were included on alternative dispute resolution; and comments submitted by a specially formed international group of experts in law, business and policy, known as the WIPO-ASPIC Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Experts Group.

The global dispute avoidance and resolution guidelines are available publicly through the web sites of both the ASP Industry Consortium (www.allaboutasp.org) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (www.wipo.int).

About the ASP Industry Consortium

The ASP Industry Consortium is the global advocacy group formed to promote the application service provider industry. Its goals include educating the marketplace, promoting best practices, developing common definitions for the industry, as well as serving as a forum for discussion and sponsoring research. Among the technology sectors represented among its membership are Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), Network Service Providers (NSPs), telecommunications companies, infrastructure providers, Application Service Providers (ASPs) and other sectors supporting the industry. Since its founding by 25 leading technology companies in May 1999, more than 600 member companies in 30 countries have joined the ASP Industry Consortium. Information on the ASP Industry Consortium - including a full list of member companies - is available at www.allaboutasp.org or by contacting the Consortium's headquarters at: ASP Industry Consortium, Inc., 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500, Wakefield, Mass., USA 01880; Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; e-mail [e-mail].