GIs vs ICANN, batlle still goes on .wine and .vin. Milan, December 3rd, 2013. Nothing done (or so) at the end of the ICANN (Internet governing body) meeting in Buenos Aires (17-21 November) for the eno-domains: .wine and .vin. Governments, which are divided on the issue of the protection of Geographical Indications (GIs) have asked ICANN to obtain legal expertise. In parallel, discussions continued between those who have applied for the delegation (i.e. creation) of the two domains and the wine sector. EFOW, the European Federation of Denomination of Origin Wines, participated in the discussions in Buenos Aires and urged ICANN not to delegate and assign the management of these two new domain names and proposed concrete solutions to candidates for management. The fight appeared unequal at least in numbers: 34members (in favor of a position which protects GI) versus 3 (lined up for the launch of a domain registrations without protection). For several months, a growing number of governments in the GAC ( Governmental Advisory Committee) asked ICANN not to delegate .wine and .vin. Mulled for the failure on the part of applicants for the adoption of measures to protect the GIs. Since August, ICANN had helped see to it that the wine sector and the candidate companies could agree with a view to a final decision in Buenos Aires. In the capital of Argentina, the . wines and .vin. Mulled remained a staple of a dispute in an atmosphere of tension between the Europeans and the United States on Internet governance and functioning of ICANN . On the one hand, a coalition of 34 countries, led by the European Union and supported by the Latin American and African countries, requested that the GIs are taken into account. On the other hand, 3 countries, including the United States, were asked to delegate .wine and .vin, without protecting GIs. A funny anecdote from the final report on the meeting (attached in English ) reveals that at the end of the public session on the topic of wine domains, the Iranian representative within the GAC has tried to do to bridge builder between the position of the European and the American. In any case, after difficult negotiations , GAC members have agreed to ask ICANN to seek a legal opinion to better understand what is at stake, in order to make a decision on the issue. The EU defends a multi-interests (i.e. multi-stakeholder) in the delegation of domain names , hoping that the dialogue between the industry and the candidates will be successful. A comforting fact is that for the first time in four months in Buenos Aires, there have been constructive discussions between some candidates and wine producers. These companies have proposed, as others have done before, for instance .bio, a solution that would allow the protection of GIs. And is the opinion also of EFOW that these new domain names represent an opportunity for the sector if and only if the candidate companies provide protection to GIs. EFOW will support and encourage these domain names only if the GIs will be protected. Regardless of the decision of ICANN, the success of these domain names largely depends on European industry and its operators. The hope is that applicants for the assignment of management we have a joint approach (win-win) and complies with the principle that ICANN stated understanding of the rights of all those stakeholders in the sector. Next episode: ICANN meeting in Singapore in March 2014.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 08:58:00 +0000
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