At its recent meeting in Seoul, Korea, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that Internet addresses containing solely non-Latin characters will soon be available. Such non-Latin character domain names will initially be limited to those domain names with two-letter country codes, for example .kr (for Korea) or .ru (for Russia). Nations and territories, including government agencies and community support organizations will be able to apply for Internet extensions reflecting their name and made up of characters from their national language beginning November 16, 2009 through ICANN’s Fast Track Process. ICANN plans to expand the program to all types of Internet addresses in 2010. At least 25 countries are interested in the first round of registrations.
Currently, domain names can only be displayed using Latin alphabet letters A-Z, the digits 0-9 or a hyphen. Internet users who do not use the Latin alphabet are able to access Web sites by asking search engines in their local script to provide links. This decision means that domain names could be written in languages such as Greek, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Cyrillic, Korean or Japanese. This would obviate using a search engine as a go-between. As a result, Internet usage among users is likely to vastly increase, especially among individuals who previously found it difficult to write in Latin characters. Millions of individuals who have never used Latin characters in their daily lives will now be able to access the Internet. The introduction of non-Latin character domain names is likely the greatest change to the Internet since its creation.
Of course, the use of non-Latin characters raises numerous security issues. It may more difficult to fight cyberattacks, including malicious redirects and hacking. Additionally, such change will affect business owners and global brand protection. Also such change may require trademark owners to have numerous different domains, the existing one in English and a new one in a local script. A U.S. company with interests in Korea or India will want to ensure its brand is protected in the local language and script.
Additionally, each country may have a different policy concerning the registration of such domain names. For example, if a company already owns a domain name comprising its trademark and a country code, would such company need to reapply for the local script version. In other words, if Coca Cola already owns cocacola.hk or cocacola.ru, would Coca Cola need to reapply for the Chinese or Russian character version of the domain name. Hong Kong has already decided that any one who applies for or already owns a domain name ending in .hk will get a registration in the new Chinese character domain automatically. It is unclear if other jurisdictions will adopt a similar policy.
Darby continues to monitor ICANN’s progress and will notify clients and trademark holders about new developments in this area. Darby has a great deal of experience in successfully negotiating and resolving domain name issues on behalf of its clients. If you have a domain name issue, please do not hesitate to contact us for an initial consultation.
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