Registering and using multilingual domain names

• US 20070118620A1
• Filed: 01/18/2007
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brian Cartmell, Jothan Frakes
• Original Assignee: Brian Cartmell, Jothan Frakes
• Inventors: Frakes, Jothan, Cartmell, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 7,774,432 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/32 containing non-Latin characters, e.g. Chinese domain names
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/302 Administrative registration, e.g. for domain names at internet corporation for assigned names and numbers [ICANN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3025 Domain name generation or assignment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4552 Lookup mechanisms between a plurality of directories; Synchronisation of directories, e.g. metadirectories

Abstract

A method, system, and computer-readable medium are described for registering and using multilingual domain names that include characters outside the ASCII character subset supported by the DNS system. Such multilingual domain names can in some situations be registered by first being converted into appropriate ASCII-Compatible Encodings (ACEs) that represent the corresponding multilingual domain names and that use only characters within the ASCII character subset. In addition, a variety of binary variants may be generated at registration for each multilingual domain name and then used as equivalents for the multilingual domain name, such as by storing the variants in the registry as alternative domain names or by otherwise reserving the binary variants. When requests to resolve such a registered multilingual domain name into a corresponding IP address or URL are received, the stored binary variants and/or ACE information can then be used to respond in an appropriate manner.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for registering multilingual domain names that include non-ASCII characters, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to register a multilingual domain name in a top-level domain (TLD), the multilingual domain name having a specified second-level domain name portion that is composed of non-ASCII characters from a specified non-ASCII character set, each character in the specified character set having an associated numeric value, the second-level domain name portion indicated in the received request by a sequence of the numeric values that are associated with the non-ASCII characters of the second-level domain name portion;

generating an ASCII-Compatible Encoding (ACE) for the specified second-level domain name portion based on the specified character set and the indicated numeric sequence for the second-level domain name portion;

constructing an ASCII domain name whose second-level domain name portion is the generated ACE and whose top-level domain name portion is the TLD;

determining whether the constructed ASCII domain name is available to be registered in the TLD and whether the indicated numeric sequence has already been reserved for another multilingual domain name registered in the TLD; and

when it is determined that the constructed ASCII domain name is available to be registered and that the indicated numeric sequence has not been reserved, registering the mutilingual domain name in the TLD by,

generating multiple distinct numeric sequence variants as equivalents for the specified second-level domain name portion of the multilingual domain name, each generated numeric sequence variant consisting of a sequence of numeric values; and

reserving the generated numeric sequence variants for the multilingual domain name.

2. The method of claim 1 including preventing registration of the multilingual domain name in the TLD when it is determined that the ASCII domain name is not available to be registered in the TLD and/or that the indicated numeric sequence has already been reserved.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the generating of the numeric sequence variants is performed before the registering of the multilingual domain name, and wherein the registering of the multilingual domain name is performed only if it is further determined that none of the generated numeric sequence variants has already been reserved.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the generated numeric sequence variants include the indicated numeric sequence.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving of the request from the user includes:

receiving an indication of interest in registering a multilingual domain name that includes characters from a specified non-ASCII character set;

providing a Web page that when displayed with a Web browser includes a field in which the user can specify the second-level domain name portion using non-ASCII characters from the specified character set; and

receiving the request from the Web browser based on an indication from the user.

6. The method of claim 1 including, after the multilingual domain name is registered in the TLD:

receiving a request to register in the TLD a second multilingual domain name that is distinct from the multilingual domain name, the second multilingual domain name having a second-level domain name portion that is indicated in the received request by a second sequence of numeric values associated with characters of the second-level domain name portion;

determining that the indicated second sequence of numeric values is one of the generated numeric sequence variants for the multilingual domain name; and

indicating that the second multilingual domain name is not available to be registered based on the determining.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the registering of the multilingual domain name in the TLD includes registering the ASCII domain name in the TLD.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the registering of the multilingual domain name in the TLD includes associating an IP address and/or a URL with the ASCII domain name and/or with the reserved numeric sequence variants.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the registering of the multilingual domain name in the TLD includes associating the multilingual domain name with a server computer system able to receive requests that specify the multilingual domain name and to respond in an appropriate manner.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein each of multiple distinct character sets are associated with one or more encoding systems that each assign a numeric value that is unique within that encoding system to each character in that associated set, and wherein the numeric values that are associated with the non-ASCII characters of the second-level domain name portion of the multilingual domain name are the unique numeric values assigned to those characters by an encoding system associated with the specified character set.