IDNs to be available in '.ar' domain extension from August

NIC Argentina, the registry responsible for the regulation of the '.ar' country-code top-level domain (ccTLD), has announced the launch of internationalized domain names (IDNs) in August this year.

The announcement follows the issuance of Resolution 616/2008 by the minister of foreign affairs on April 9 2008. The resolution:

introduces multilingual characters (eg, the letter 'ñ', the dieresis, Spanish and Portuguese accents and the cedilla) into the '.ar' ccTLD; and
establishes the process for replacing the sub-domain '.gov.ar' by '.gob.ar' (from 'gobierno', which is Spanish for 'government').

IDNs are domain names that may include non-ASCII characters - for example, diacritical marks and characters from non-Latin scripts.

The launch will be carried out in three phases following an initial period of up to 120 days (as from the date of Resolution 616/2008). The schedule is as follows:

NIC Argentina will publish and promote the rules for registration of domain names with multilingual characters during a 30-day period.
A sunrise period will be open to owners of domain names during the following 100 days. Owners will be able to apply for the registration of the corresponding IDNs.
During the following 90-day period, applications will be assessed pursuant to two basic rules:
- If there is only one applicant for a particular domain name, the domain name will be awarded to that applicant; and
- If there is more than one applicant, the domain name will be awarded to the owner of the earliest registered similar domain name with no multilingual characters.
Registration of domain names with multilingual characters will subsequently be open to the general public.

The launch of IDNs in Argentina aims to:

reinforce the use of the Spanish language;
strengthen the Latin American identity; and
promote Mercosur.

Agustina Martínez Estrada, G Breuer, Buenos Aires

IDNs to be available in '.ar' domain extension from August

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