VENEZUELA
of being jointly responsible in legal cases where one of the company’s partners or service providers is not complying with the national law.
T erefore, it is important for any international Internet entrepreneur
to know how its contractual parties understand the Venezuelan environmental factors (social, economic and political), and how familiar they are with the Venezuelan laws, in order to prevent any legal dispute. T us, Venezuelan authorities might
contrary to ethical and good public moral standards, as the government interpretation of these concepts tends to be wider and more subjective.
Entrepreneurs should be alert in the early stages of the negotiations on how they should manage the legal aspects in Venezuela. Private contracts must be thoroughly reviewed and must include specifi c clauses to avoid liabilities not only in accordance to the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio, Television, and Electronic Media, but also with the application of non-specialised national laws that might be applied to regulate Internet disputes.
T ere are several Internet companies that do not use any kind of legal counsel when starting web businesses in Venezuela. Even though most of these companies have been operating and providing online services without any legal consequence, they might be the target of a great variety of legal actions based on the lack of formalities and legal protections.
Private contracts with specifi c clauses, including the selection of a favourable jurisdiction, are important considerations that Internet entrepreneurs should take into account at the moment of contracting in Venezuela. Furthermore, companies should demand that their business partners have their trademarks registered, and should perform routine background checks on the current and potential legal disputes that these partners might have in the future.
Internet fair use
In Venezuela, there is a ‘blurry’ line with respect to what can be considered fair use on the Internet. Different Internet companies have
www.worldipreview.com consider certain activities as
THE LAW IS PRIMARILY CONSIDERED AS A LEGAL BODY PURSUING ‘SOCIAL AND LOCAL CULTURE AWARENESS’ IN ALL SECTORS IN THE VENEZUELAN PUBLIC MEDIA COMMUNITY.
been indiscriminately using identical or similar trademarks owned by third parties without any express consent.
In this sense, monitoring and surveillance systems have also become part of companies’ everyday activities, while cease and desist letters are a very common practice for well-known organisations seeking to protect their IP assets online.
As the enforcement by the Venezuelan government related to IP infringements is not very strict and expeditious, this situation means that Internet business owners are trying to protect their IP assets by any means including the application of the current IP legislation in Venezuela. However, as mentioned before, this law was passed in 1955, when electronic media did not aff ect any company’s business.
World Intellectual Property Review e-Digest 2013 117
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