EFOW's reaction to the GAC's communiqué on 11 April 2013 in Beijing

["D. Zandona \( Efow Eu \)" <d.zandona@xxxxxxx>]

To the courteous attention of Dr Steve Crocker, Chair of the ICANN Board 

Mr Cherine Chalaby, Chair of the new gTLD Program Committee Board 

Mr Fadi Chehadé, CEO of ICANN 

Mr Akram Atallah, COO of ICANN 

Ms Heather Dryden, Chair of the Governmental Advisory Committee 

 

 

Object: EFOW’s reaction to the GAC’s communiqué on 11 April 2013 in Beijing 

 

Dear Madam, dear Sirs, 

 

EFOW, the European Federation of Origin Wines, a Brussels based-organisation
representing PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected
Geographical Indication) wines towards European and international
institutions, would like to contribute to the open debate launched by the
ICANN Board regarding the Governmental Advisory Committee’s (GAC) Communiqué
of 11 April1. 

1 http://bcove.me/nizq38rg 

 

In light of our serious concerns regarding the protection of wines with a
Geographical Indication (GI), clearly expressed in a letter to the ICANN
Board on 12 March and published on the new gTLD correspondence page at
http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/correspondence/curbastro-to-croc
ker-et-al-12mar13-en.pdf, EFOW would like to bring its’ support to the
position expressed by the GAC’s Communiqué in Beijing concerning the strings
“.wine” and “.vin”. 

 

EFOW believes that the management of the possible new Internet domains
“.wine” and “.vin” is a very sensible issue which must be further examined
by the GAC in Durban in July. We would like to underline that EFOW is not
opposed to the attribution of new gTLDs. Nevertheless, given the prejudice
that these two strings may cause to the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)
of GI wines, the ICANN Board must take into consideration the request of the
GAC and must not proceed beyond Initial Evaluation with the examination of
the 4 applications it has received. 

 

Moreover, EFOW calls for the strings “.wine” and “.vin” to be included in
Annex I “Safeguards on New gTLDs”. In fact, only their inclusion in that
chapter will allow for an adequate respect of GI wines IPRs - as established
by article 23 of the WTO TRIPs Agreement on trade-related aspects of IPRs -
and to guarantee consumer protection. More specifically, ICANN should
develop a procedure that ensures that GI names cannot be reserved by third
parties and enables organisations responsible for the protection of GIs to
oppose the reservation of a domain name that consists of or contains the
name of a GI through a procedure, e.g. an alternative dispute resolution
(ADR). www.efow.eu 

 

We believe it to be necessary for ICANN to take into account the opinions of
professional organisations and governments. On the contrary it would risk
discrediting this major change in the development of the Internet. 

We thank you in advance for taking into consideration our observations and
would welcome an open discussion on this specific issue.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Daniela Ida ZANDONA’

EFOW – European Federation of Origin Wines

www.efow.eu

+32 2 733 50 58

+32 472 900 396

Attachment: EFOW - response GAC communiqué 11 April.pdf
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