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

["contact" <contact@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Madam, dear Sirs,

 

Please find enclosed a letter from Bernard FARGES, president of the CNAOC.

 

 

 

Dear Madam, dear Sirs,

 

CNAOC, the National Appellation of Origin Wines and Brandy Producers
Organization, a Paris based-organisation representing PDO (Protected
Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) wines
towards National, 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 April[1]. 

 

In light of our serious concerns regarding the protection of wines with a
Geographical Indication (GI), CNAOC would like to bring its’ support to the
position expressed by the GAC’s Communiqué in Beijing concerning the strings
“.wine” and “.vin”. 

 

CNAOC 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 CNAOC 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, CNAOC 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).

 

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.

 

Yours faithfully,



 

Bernard FARGES

Président

 

 

 

 




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[1] http://bcove.me/nizq38rg

Attachment: 2013.04.19 - Lettre CNAOC ICANN.doc
Description: MS-Word document