Online addresses ending in .wine and .vin are set to be uncorked soon, despite objections from European governments and several wine industry groups.
The Internet’s chief regulator has reaffirmed its plan to allow the new “top-level domains” ending in “wine” and its French language equivalent, vin.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said that, following a 60-day review, it found no problems with the process that gave preliminary approval in March to the new domains.
An ICANN statement said that in the process for launching new domain names that began in 2011, “parties with standing were afforded the opportunity to file formal objections... In this case, no such objections were filed against .vin or .wine.”
The board also said there was no basis to claims that ICANN violated its bylaws in the process.
In recent months, several European governments and wine industry groups have protested the plan, while the US government has stood in favor.
Wine industry groups in Europe, California and elsewhere keen on defending appellations with valuable reputations, such as Bordeaux or Napa, have complained the new domains could harm them.
Winemakers also fear having to pay to register their names at Web sites in the new online terrain solely to stop online addresses from being used by imposters or in ways that could spoil reputations.
Three French government officials last week asked the European Commission to block any new .wine and .vin extension without protection for geographical origins such as Bordeaux or Napa.
The letter said the process has become “emblematic of Internet governance that is out of control.”
However, US officials earlier this year said giving special rights to the domains to wine groups or regions could set a dangerous precedent and that ICANN was in no position to determine if a Web site was operating in “bad faith” with respect to wine designations.
Assigning new Web sites for wine could still take some months.
Because three companies have applied as the registrar for .wine, they will be given until January next year to reach an agreement on a joint effort or to make financial arrangements before ICANN sets an auction.
For .vin, only one company has applied to be the registrar, US-based Donuts Inc, which will now be allowed to move forward with ICANN in a process that typically takes several months.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
RSS