ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization responsible for managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses, has approved a plan to allow non-Latin characters in website addresses.

This is a MAJOR change in domain name rules and conventions. “The coming introduction of non-Latin characters represents the biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago,” stated ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush.

Previously, only Latin characters were allowed in website addresses. This applied even to countries with very different character sets, whether Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew or Arabic. Obviously, this just didn’t make any logical sense. Companies and individuals around the world should have the right to use their own native languages in their website addresses.

Known as Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), the new system is designed to globalize the Internet. This is in direct correlation to the growing globalization of business today, no matter what industry. The IDN system makes total sense.

Companies doing business internationally, though, must now develop a trademark and IP (intellectual property) strategy for protecting their brand assets around the world. Expect a lot of activity by lawyers in the coming year. Expect a bit of chaos. Expect some new laws and rules along the way.

But even so, if you do business internationally today, you need to learn about IDNs now and to start securing and protecting your desired domains around the world.

What’s the first step in the IDN implementation process? Specifically, the process will be called the “Fast Track Process,” bringing 100,000 characters of the languages of the world online for domain names on November 16, 2009. This first step will allow nations and territories to apply for Internet extensions reflecting their name in their native language.

For more information on IDNs, visit: ICANN website / ICANN Fast Track Process.

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Related posts:

1. Why You Should Misspell Your Domain Name
2. What’s In a (Domain) Name?
3. Protect Your Trademark and Brand
4. Who Cares about .NET and .BIZ? (You should!)

Tags: domain, domain name, domain name strategy, domain names, icann, idn, international domain name, internationalized domain names

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 10:27 am and is filed under branding, domain names. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.