Monday, June 23, 2014

Europe And US Battle Over .Wine And .Vin Top Level Domain Creation

This week Europe and the US wine industry is in an uproar.  In London this week is an ICANN, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, meeting to decide on new Top Level Domain names (TLD).  French minister Axelle Lemaire  sent a letter to ICANN stating that the new TLDs would cause confusion and be misused. Lemaire claimed that the new domain names could weaken identity of beverages such as Champagne which can only be called Champagne if produced in the Champagne region of France.  There are also claims that ICANN is doing this to make money as it will cause a burden on companies as they will be compelled to buy up the related TLDs to protect their brands. More than 80 companies petitioned the US Department of Commerce, saying that the plans would cause "excessive cost and harm to brand owners". Stay tuned for the results of this meeting.
Associated meeting documents:
LONDON – GAC Meeting: New gTLDs - Board Responses to ...
http://london50.icann.org/en/schedule/sat-gac-safeguard-new-gtld/transcript-gac-safeguard-new-gtld-21jun14-en.pdf