The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently introduced technology that will allow non-English reading Internet users to have access to Internet addresses completely in their own language. Known as Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), this breakthrough was announced at the ICANN’s 36th Annual Meeting on October 30, 2009.
After China receives application approval from ICANN, the state-run China Internet Network Information Center ( “CNNIC” ) will introduce Chinese domain names with “.中國” (.CN). By registering a .CN Chinese domain name, the registrant automatically obtains the equivalent Chinese domain name with a .CN extension (in characters). This has received support from many large internet companies like Microsoft, Baidu, Alibaba, Firefox, and Tencent. The approval is expected to take place in the first half of 2010.
Soon, Chinese domain names will become standard browsing hosts and enjoy the same status as the existing English/Latin based domain names. An Internet user need only type the Chinese IDN into the browser and have direct access to that website anywhere in the world.
Lehman, Lee, & Xu attorney Scott Garner commented, “The move to “.CN” domain names is an incredible stride forward in Internet accessibility, especially for millions of Chinese non-English readers all over the world. It attests to the growing influence China has on the share of information and technologies world-wide. At the same time, we at Lehman, Lee, and Xu encourage rights-owners to take active steps to safeguard their trade marks, trade names, and other intellectual property rights. During this technology-transition, we suggest our clients take advantage of our extensive intellectual property law experience for consultation on any questions they may have.”