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This article is a copy of a letter sent today, 3 of April 2013, to the attention of Mr Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN and other members of the ICANN board. Protecting wine Geographical Indications in the new gTLD program is a problem. This letter is also an article providing hints for the protection of Wine Geographical Indications in the ICANN new gTLD program.
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Dear Mr Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN,
As a person involved - since 2008 - in the wine domain names that have just been introduced by the ICANN new gTLD program, I have been very happy to point out that there were 4 new gTLD applications posted on Reveal Day, June the 13th 2012: 3 applications for the .wine Top-Level Domain (in English) and one for .vin (in French).
Even if these applications are standard ones, it shows there is definitely a Wine community on the Internet.
Project dotVinum was set-up to open the discussion, inform about, promote wine domain name extensions to the public in multiple languages (.wine, .vino and .vin) and launch wine Registries. The aim of the project remains what it always has been: offer wine domain names, protect the wine industry and users publishing wine related content on their web site, protect brands and wine Geographical Indications.
A few things the board, the Independent Objector and the ICANN Ombudsman should remember prior to reading more about this article:
1) Geographical Indications and Appellations of Origin are easy to protect: stick to the official databases
Wine is specific regarding the question of protection because protecting the wine community is not only a matter of protecting brands and Country and Territory Names as specified in “Specification 5” from the Applicant Guidebook. Avoiding a third party to register a “monbazillac.wine”, a “toro.wine”, a “champagne.wine”, a “cachi.wine”, or a “bentoncounty.wine” is also a matter of protecting a culture: the culture of Wine.
Part of this culture was given names: “Geographical Indications (GIs)” and “Appellations of Origin (AO)”.
Following ICANN’s rules and sticking to Specification 5 of the new gTLD applicant guidebook “only” is far from enough to protect the wine Industry: I am happy that a domain name like california.wine is protected in multiple languages—thanks to this specification—but what about napavalley.wine (USA), valedosvinhedos.wine (BRAZIL) and…champagne.wine (FRANCE)?
There is NO strong mechanism offered to protect GIs et AOs in the Applicant Guidebook as well as any of the four proposed wine applications. This is not acceptable.
The Trademark Clearinghouse and the Sunrise Periods offer a possibility to participate for interested parties who want to register a domain name, but what about the rest of all members of the wine Communities who do not know, who do not use domain names, who do not want to participate but want to be protected?
Sunrise periods are open during a certain period of time but this is not enough for an entire industry to know it can register a domain name. This is not a protection mechanism… It is just an option.
The only solution left then for all this “wine population” who could not participate, who did not want to participate, who could not afford to participate or who forgot to participate will be to recover its infringed domain names and infringed Wine GIs through a URS procedure? Again, this is not acceptable.
Geographical Indications and Appellations of Origin official Databases DO exist. There are 2 official databases worldwide which list them:
Another complete and up-to-date database of French wine GIs only is available at the French INAO.
2) How to allow any listed institution or competent authority representing a wine GI to have access to its corresponding domain name?
Not only Geographical Indications and Appellations of Origins Registrants should be allowed to register their domain name ANYTIME THEY WANT and whatever how long the Sunrise or Landrush Periods are, but they should also be allowed to recover their domain name anytime they want to when another Registry (such as .HORSE for example) allows another Registrant to register a conflicting domain name.
SPECIFICATION 5 of the New gTLD applicant guidebook offers the best solution to block and reserve names at the second level to protect Wine Geographical Indications. The E-BACCHUS database has a list of 3013 Geographical Indications (see figures) which should be blocked for Registration and then allowed to be unlocked on request by the corresponding representative of a wine Geographical Indication.
Each blocked name should include its plural version(s) with and without hyphen when they exists.
ICANN should also include a mechanism to:
Standard or Community?
All wine new gTLD applications that have been submitted are Standard ones. This was expected but:
The question here is not to understand why none of them is represented in any WINE application, the real question here is why ICANN has offered any commercial organization to apply for a .wine Top-Level Domain without the consent of, at least, one recognized wine institution?
The final question regarding .WINE applications is not to say whether ICANN offered a correct way to apply through its multiple versions of its applicant guidebook, the final question here is how to ensure that wine Registrants, AOs and GIs are offered a way to register their domain name without having to face what comes after: cybersquatting and domaining? These factors have been a reality for the past 25 years: check bordeaux.pro as a matter of example.
Being allowed to acquire the highly profitable monopoly to own a registry license may seem easy according to the ICANN Applicant Guidebook but “wine” or “vin” are not just letters added on to the other: they represent people, companies, culture, knowledge, datas: they are not the same as giving the monopoly to a .XYZ which will be “open to all”. Not to forget that the winning applicant is then granted to be the only one to allow selling wine domain names worldwide! Once the winning application is delegated, there is no way back: there is no possibility to change the rules.
WINE applications submitted to ICANN
I checked all .WINE applications and they all follow the ICANN rules offered in the “Applicant Guidebook”, but none goes farther enough into protecting the wine Community. For the subject of Wine, it does no matter whether they are “Standard” applications or “Community” ones:
Dear members of the board, the ICANN new gTLD program is not ready but there is still time to protect the wine community. Once you have launched, it is the entire Wine industry which will be exposed to infringements: Geographical Indications can benefit from a good protection only if they are protected at the source in the list of reserved names from the Specification 5 of your applicant guidebook.
NB: I am sorry for any mistakes in this letter, English is not my native language.
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This letter sent to Mr Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN in April the third was published today:
http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence
:-)
http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/dryden-to-crocker-09sep13-en
Jean.