According to the preface to this instrument:

"The provisions aim at providing a clear legal framework for trademark owners who wish to use their marks on the Internet and to participate in the development of electronic commerce. They are intended to facilitate the application of existing laws relating to marks, and other industrial property rights in signs, on the Internet, and to be applied in the context of:

• determining whether, under the applicable law, use of a sign on the Internet has contributed to the acquisition, maintenance or infringement of a mark or other industrial property right in the sign, or whether such use constitutes an act of unfair competition;
• enabling owners of conflicting rights in identical or similar signs to use these signs concurrently on the Internet;
• determining remedies.

The determination of the applicable law itself is not addressed by the present provisions, but left to the private international laws of individual Member States."

The Explanatory Notes accompanying this recommendation indicate that:

"The first and second recitals [of the Preamble] clarify that the present provisions do not constitute a self-contained industrial property law for the Internet, but are intended to guide the application of existing national or regional industrial property laws to legal problems resulting from the use of a sign on the Internet.

"The third recital emphasizes the main particularity of the Internet, its “global nature” which challenges the territorial nature of national or regional laws. These challenges require some modifications in national or regional laws if marks and other rights in distinctive signs are to be granted an adequate level of protection on the Internet.

"The purpose of the present provisions is, therefore, to provide a link between the global Internet and territorial laws and to make these laws Internet-compatible. The present provisions deal with all situations in which a competent authority is called upon to decide whether the use of a sign on the Internet has, under the applicable national or regional law, contributed to acquiring, maintaining or infringing a right in that sign, or whether such use constitutes an act of unfair competition. They also apply in the context of determining remedies.

"The question of determining the applicable law is not addressed by the present provisions, but left to the private international laws of individual Member States. Once the applicable national or regional law has been determined, it should be applied, directly or by analogy, wherever this is possible."