Launching IDN & IDN TLDs:
A gTLD Registry Perspective
APNIC, Beijing
2009.08.24
Overview
• General Considerations
• IDN 2LDs (e.g. 中文.asia)
• IDN TLD (e.g. 中文. 亞洲)
• ICANN Considerations
General Considerations
• Limitations of technical standards
– Linguistic considerations
– Variants of characters (e.g. Traditional & Simplified
Chinese: 亞洲 vs. 洲)
– Confusable characters (e.g. Cyrillic / Greek vs. Latin:
AB vs. AB vs. AB)
• gTLD Challenges (vs. ccTLD)
– Global / generic in nature
– Multiple languages and scripts to consider
– Overlapping character repertoire between languages
– Costs of IDN gTLDs
IDN 2LDs (e.g. 中文.asia)
• Policy Development for gTLDs
– IDN Language Table
– Variant Policies
– Sunrise / Trademark (IPR) provisions
– Special considerations for existing ASCII domains
• Technical Considerations
– Implementation of IDN Language Table (and variants)
– Limitations of IDN Policies
IDN Language Table
• Adopting a ccTLD Language Table
– Adaptations Required
– Multiple languages with overlapping character
repertoire accepted in a gTLD (e.g. Chinese and
Japanese)
– Multiple script variations accepted in a gTLD (e.g.
Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese)
• Developing New Language Table
– Engaging linguistic experts
– Consideration of technical limitations
– Character repertoire, variants and contextual rules
Multiple Languages
• Overlapping Character Repertoire
• Example: Chinese & Japanese
– Simplified Chinese: .asia
– Traditional Chinese: 經濟.asia
– Japanese: 經濟.asia
• Should consider launching together
– Fairness
– Confusion
– Competition
Multiple Script Variations Accepted
• Example: Traditional Chinese & Simplified
Chinese
– Applied for String:
– Preferred Simplified Chinese Variant:
– Preferred Traditional Chinese Variant:
• Should consider merging language tables
– I.e. Include both Preferred Simplified Chinese AND
Preferred Traditional Chinese variants
Variant Policies
• Definition of a “variant”
– Defined by the IDN Language Table
– Linguistic convention / Cultural expectation
• Registration &