On-line contracts are an inevitable feature of our increasing reliance on the Internet for many business activities. Gordon Hughes, a partner in the information technology (IT) section of Blake Dawson Waldron's Intellectual Property and CommunicationsGroup, discusses the issues to watch for when transacting over the Internet and ensuring the contract is valid. When considering the legal effectiveness of on-line contracts, there are three issues to consider: the legal status of a contract which may have only ever existed in digitised form; the absence, in many cases, of a traditional signature; and the precise point of time when agreement is reached and a contract comes into effect.
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