Internet: Domain names with accent

On May 28 2008, a three member Panel of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center ruled in favor of the complainant, owner of the trademark “MONOGRAFIAS.COM” and domain name www.monografias.com and therefore, ordered the transfer of the disputed domain name, www.monografías.com (with an accent), registered by the Respondent. The Respondent used a new technology that allows the registration of domain names with accents over letters.

The Internet configuration identifies characters in a code named ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), which is a code based on the Latin alphabet but does not allow the use of accents. However, some domain name registrars have found a way to register domain names with accents by using characters of other codes that can be translated through an encoding system called Punycode, which is compatible with ASCII. For instance, if someone writes “monografías” (with an accent) in an Internet browser, the site www.monografías.com (with an accent) appears in the listed results but when the user enters the page, the shown domain name is www.xn--monografas-r8a.com. This also happens with other domain names of well-known trademarks, including Clarín, El País, La Nación.

In this novel case the WIPO recognized the use of the new technologies and considered the Respondent’s registration in bad faith. To see the full text of the decision click here (http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2008/d2008-0140.html).

From 1999 to date the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center (www.wipo.org) has issued nearly 25,000 decisions in domain name conflicts. The procedure established in the UDRP (Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy) applied by the WIPO is fast and inexpensive and allows trademark owners to obtain the cancellation or transfer in their favor of domain names registered by "cybersquatters" in violation of their trademark rights.