Follow on Google News News By Tag Industry News News By Location Country(s) Industry News
Follow on Google News | The Grapes of Wrath? An Insight Into .WINE, the Most Hotly Debated TLD in Government CirclesEverybody agrees, all .WINE applicants want to find where the buck is going to stop, as far as the strange stalemate we have been in for so many months. Situation? "What situation?" I hear you asking.
By: Jean Guillon Wine Geographical Indications Battle lines were drawn over whether the contentious issue of "wine Geographical Indications" New gTLD Applicants' answers to the question of whether they were supporting GIs under .WINE were straightforward — according to the rules, laid down by ICANN in its 'Applicant Guidebook'. Applicants for .WINE all followed the rules to the letter and rights protection mechanisms that all registries are bound to employ, in the form of the independently operated and impartial Trademark Clearinghouse should offer sufficient Rights Owner protection. Actually, this is true because no applicant would have invested so much money in a new domain name extension with the possibility that it might not be accepted at the very end, because of a lack of rights owner protection. Appalling lack of consensus Why was there so much emphasis put into providing additional rights owner protection for this specific TLD? Is the reason that wine is a very meaningful part of French culture or is it because it is a luxury product that the French feel is their own? Why, in such a short period of time, have we seen so much negative and confusing communications? Appalling... Although GAC representatives had met with the three TLD applicants to discuss — and hopefully resolve — the issue, they have recently proved unable to do so. It is amusing to point out that the decision to approve the TLD, or not, has been announced three times already: at the ICANN meeting in Beijing, at the ICANN meeting in Durban and again, at the recent ICANN meeting in Buenos Aires. At the time of writing, the issue is it is still pending. Approached by GAC representatives, it appears that some applicants have suggested solutions. At least one applicant's proposed solution is protected with patents, testament to the seriousness, consideration and desire to find a workable solution that they are giving to the .WINE registry; others want to only stick to the rights protection mechanisms required by ICANN in the Applicant Guidebook. A good example of how the ICANN system works The .WINE new gTLD is a good example of a situation that shows how ICANN is still a bit green on commercial necessity: few investors will ever inject money in such projects with a concrete set of rules that are open to change long after the 'final' rules have been approved and hundreds of millions of dollars in application fees have been accepted. If the question were to be asked again, there is no doubt that many applicants would consider not applying due to the constantly changing rules and requirements. The only positive thought on all of this is that the .WINE TLD has generated a lot of talking points. While most of the publicity is about delays, changes in direction and lack of consensus at a governmental level, if agreement is finally reached the .WINE Top Level Domain may finally start TLD starts bringing something to the consumer. By the way... Did you know champagne.wine and bordeaux.wine are in the ICANN list of blocked domain names for .WINE, as well as many others? This means… no one will be able to register these domain names for a while anyway. End
Account Email Address Account Phone Number Disclaimer Report Abuse
|
|