STRING SIMILARITY: IDN VARIANT REVIEW RESULTS

[Drewbert]

http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/announcement-01mar13-en

STRING SIMILARITY: IDN VARIANT REVIEW RESULTS
In an announcement on 26 February 2013, ICANN published a list of string similarity contention sets wherein two or more applied-for gTLD strings are identical or so nearly resemble one another visually that they are likely to cause confusion. In ICANN's New gTLD program, string similarity checks on Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) strings go beyond visual resemblance. The string similarity panel has now completed a review of potential IDN variant characters. Based on this review, two (2) contention sets of potential IDN variant strings have been identified...

[Avtal]

Thanks Drewbert for posting this.

Here are the two contention sets:
Set 1: 盛贸饭店 and 盛貿飯店. This is "Traders Hotel" in simplified and traditional characters.
Set 2: 点看 and 點看. This is Verisign's sound-alike term for "dot com" in simplified and traditional characters.

So Set 2 is of interest to us.

If I'm reading the announcement correctly, 点看 and 點看 will be placed in a contention set, meaning that only one will be allowed to enter the root. So unless Verisign convinces ICANN to bend the rules, Verisign will have to choose which of these to withdraw.

Any other interpretation?

Avtal

[Drewbert]

Not allowing Verisign to run both versions is like not allowing HSBC to use both 香港上海匯豐銀行.com and 香港上海汇丰银行.com (or whatever it is) and forcing them to chose which one they want. Crazy.

[Rubber Duck]

Well I always wondered if they were not Variants, which means that not only must they be owned by the same owner but they have to be aliased or mirrored.

Could save Verisign $185K.

[bwhhisc]

Thanks Drewbert for posting this.

Here are the two contention sets:
Set 1: 盛贸饭店 and 盛貿飯店. This is "Traders Hotel" in simplified and traditional characters.
Set 2: 点看 and 點看. This is Verisign's sound-alike term for "dot com" in simplified and traditional characters.

So Set 2 is of interest to us.

If I'm reading the announcement correctly, 点看 and 點看 will be placed in a contention set, meaning that only one will be allowed to enter the root. So unless Verisign convinces ICANN to bend the rules, Verisign will have to choose which of these to withdraw.

Any other interpretation?

Avtal

They will probably be fine with just .idn.COM in Hong Kong. I think english is pretty widespread there anyway and certainly .com is a well know brand to anyone who has ever been on the internet.

Wikipedia says less than 1% of mainland Chinese are proficient in english, not to mention thats the billion person market so let Verisign choose the simplified version if its forced to pick.

[Rubber Duck]

Wikipedia says less than 1% of mainland Chinese are proficient in english, not to mention thats the billion person market so let Verisign choose the simplified version if its forced to pick.

Yeah, but that is clearly nonsense as Rick and his Oriental Consultant reckon that they all speak it.

You must have had Chinese Takeaway? No?