RESOLUTION ECO 6/99

GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS AND THE INTERNET

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

BASED ON the proposal of Commission III ‘Vine and Wine Economy’;

CONSIDERING the importance and fast growing use of the Internet throughout the world and the considerable amount of information dealing with wines and spirits or vitivinicultural origin available on the Internet,

CONSIDERING the perspectives of a future development of electronic commerce for wines and spirits of vitivinicultural origin and the importance of the difficulties which may derive from this situation,

CONSIDERING the protection which has been granted to geographical indications in section 3 of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and more specifically its articles concerning additional protection for wines and spirits geographical indications,

CONSIDERING that a great number of domain names on the Internet are either names of geographical indications or recognized traditional denominations which are regulated by O.I.V. member states and were communicated to the O.I.V.,

CONSIDERING that these signs are also protected by international multilateral conventions, or are recognized by countries others than their countries of origin,

CONSIDERING that among these domain names, there are some that may be greatly misleading for Internet users and represent an act of commercial parasitism or a misappropriation of notoriety and that certain registrations are for sale or correspond to sites that are not activated, which establishes their fraudulent character,

CONSIDERING that all O.I.V member states are or may be concerned by this situation,

CONSIDERING the letter addressed by the Director General of the OIV to draw the attention of the representatives of the Member States, of the Executive Committee and the Technical and Scientific Committee, of the General Directors of the WTO and WIPO, and of the European commission,

ENTRUSTS the Director General to pursue representations and contacts with international and intergovernmental organizations, professional organizations and competent authorities to control internet, in order to stop the abnormal situations that are being witnessed,

ASKS the Member States to communicate all useful information and documentation to the Director General.