The Canadian Internet Registration Authority ("CIRA") operates Canada's top-level domain registry, dot-ca. CIRA is launching a public consultation on its proposal to add French language internationalized domain names ("IDNs") to dot-ca domain names. Presently, dot-ca domain names can only contain characters from the normal ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) script, which is comprised of all non-accented Latin-based letters (the alphabet from a to z).
IDNs are domain names that include at least one non-ASCII character, such as, for example, characters from languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, such as Arabic and Chinese, or accented Latin-based characters, such as French and Spanish. It is current proposal, CIRA plans to add the following French language characters to the dot-ca domain names: é, ë, ê, è, â, à, ô, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï.
Under the proposal, the IDN general launch (wherein IDN dot-ca names will be allocated to the public at large on a first come first serve basis) would be preceded by pre-launch "Sunrise" and "Landrush" periods. The Sunrise period would provide existing dot-ca registrants a priority application period to register any available IDN variant of their current dot-ca registration. For example, the registrant of noel.ca would have the option to register noël.ca, nôêl, etc.
Immediately following the Sunrise period would be the Landrush period during which any interested party may apply for available IDNs. Competing applications for the same IDN filed during the Landrush period would be allotted through a randomized process.
Current CIRA policies, rules and procedures will not be substantively affected by the IDN proposal.
CIRA is currently seeking public feedback on all aspects of the proposal. This includes possible alternatives to the Sunrise and Landrush procedures, such as, for example, expanding the Sunrise period to allow for priority applications from trademarks owners, who would be allowed to register an exact IDN equivalent to their trademark (e.g., the owner of the trademark NOEL would have a priority right to register IDN versions such as noël.ca).
One interesting implication for the addition of French language IDNs to the dot-ca registry is how they will be treated under the CIRA dispute resolution process ("CDRP"). For example, will a trademark registration for the acronym ETE in English be sufficient to establish "rights" in the domain été.ca, which means "summer" in French.
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