ICANN chairman Steve Crocker has informed the European Commission and the governments of France, Spain and the United States that the corporation has resumed processing applications for the .wine and .vin top-level domains.
The 60-day moratorium, during which the sides were expected to come to an agreement, has not produced any positive result. The governments of several European countries, in particular France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Britain, demand the introduction of additional protection for geographic indications. They are wary of the possible appearance of bordeaux.wine or champaigne.vin domains, which have nothing in common with these wines’ producers and are therefore misleading.
The governments of the United States, Australia and New Zealand do not share this view. This is why the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) failed to reach a consensus opinion, which alone could stop the processing and delegation of new domain names or lead to the creation of new protection mechanisms.
After a 60-day temporary freeze expired earlier this month without the GAC coming to a consensus on .wine and .vin, the European governments expressed their disappointment with ICANN’s decision to continue processing applications for these domains and with the Americans’ stance.
France’s Secretary of State for Digital Affairs Axelle Lemaire said ICANN’s decision would impact transatlantic trade negotiations, including those unrelated to the domain name industry.
For his part, Steve Crocker pointed out that ICANN’s decision was based exclusively on its regulations and that they were ready to resume discussions if either of the conflicting sides offered an acceptable solution.
The wine-related domains are expected to be at the top of the agenda at the ICANN 50 meeting, which is underway in London. “The conflict over the .wine and .vin domains is indicative in that the sides’ arguments express the biggest fears of global business over the New gTLD program,” said Marina Nikerova, Senior Deputy Director of the Technical Center of Internet. “Companies and whole geographic regions often fear that a domain name registered in one of the new domain zones would be misleading because it does not belong to a person or company that has the full right to use it. The measures that would be taken to protect authentic wines’ producers will likely have a major impact on the subsequent practice of such disputes.”
