October 23, 2013 became a memorable date in the short history of the Internet: the largest-ever expansion of the Domain Name System began with the delegation of four new extensions. The choice to first launch generic top level domain names in non-Latin script, called internationalized domain names (IDN gTLDs) demonstrates ICANN’s efforts to create a globally-inclusive Internet, regardless of language or region.
The four strings delegated are:
- شبكة (xn--ngbc5azd) – Arabic for “web/network”
Registry: International Domain Registry Pty. Ltd. (Shabaka)
- онлайн (xn--80asehdb) – Cyrillic for “online”
Registry: CORE Association
- сайт (xn--80aswg) – Cyrillic for “site”
Registry: CORE Association
- 游戏(xn--unup4y) – Chinese for “game(s)”
Registry: Spring Fields, LLC (DONUTS)
According to ICANN’s rules, all new gTLD Registry operators needs to conduct a Sunrise period, which allows trademark holders an opportunity to register Second-Level Domains corresponding to their marks before making their domains available to the public.
The sunrise period for the first new gTLD شبكة (– Arabic for “web/network”) has begun on 31 October 2013 and runs until 30 December, 2013. The others are not yet opened but could begin at any time, since the 30-day period of announcement before the launch of the sunrises has recently been cancelled by ICANN.
The next gTLDs to be delegated should be 11 TLDs (among which .clothing, .equipment, .voyage or .estate) from the huge Registry operator Donuts, who applied for no less than 307 new domain name extensions.
To protect trademark owners, DONUTS proposes a rights protection mechanism called The Donuts Domain Protected Marks list (DPML). The trademark owners, who have registered their rights in the TMCH can add their trademark-related terms into the DPML to have that term blocked from registration in almost all DONUTS TLDs.
For any further information on those points, please feel free to contact us.
© [INSCRIPTA]
