Online Challenges in Asia

Asian Multi-Lingual Domain Names

Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names that can be displayed in local language scripts - a user can see a web or email address using their native language such as Mandarin or Japanese. The use of IDNs has grown significantly over the last few years mainly due to the growth of Internet usage in Asia. There are now over 600,000 IDNs in the .com and .net namespace of which more than 125,000 are Japanese IDNs. In Korea over 30% of domain names registered are IDNs. In parallel with this growth there has been an increase in “phishing” activity which is specific to using IDNs - this is where customers of on-line banks or other e-commerce companies are sent fraudulent emails asking them to log into a website and enter their banking or other details. These scams rely on the user clicking on a web-link which looks sufficiently similar to a genuine website and IDNs are increasing being used to fool the user. One example of this might be an IDN registration of páypal.com (with the accented á rather than the English a). In Asia this problem is potentially even greater with far more symbols and greater character similarity in many alphabets.

It is therefore very important that IDNs are considered in your watching strategy. TMDS' domain name watch service is able to watch for all IDN languages currently available. If you would like to ensure that your portfolio is protected against IDN infringements please contact Rob Davey or call +44 (0) 207 549 0660.


Asian Counterfeit Goods On-line

With much of the world’s counterfeiting taking place in Asia, the Internet has become a key trading area for counterfeit goods. On-line auction sites such as eBay and Yahoo! have become linked to the large amount of counterfeit goods finding their way from Asia to Europe and North America. In 2006, Louis Vuitton found over 235,000 examples of counterfeit goods on eBay alone and it’s likely that a large percentage of these goods originated from Asia. TMDS' auction watch service can be used to monitor auction sites such as eBay and Yahoo! as well as Hong Kong based trading site Alibaba.com. The auction watch tool can be used to close down auctions which offer counterfeit good using the eBay Verified Rights Owners Scheme (VERO). If you would like to discuss TMDS' auction watch service please contact Rob Davey or call +44 (0) 207 549 0660.


.ASIA Domain Name

Following the successful launch of the European Communities .eu domain name in 2005, ICANN has approved a new extension for the Asian region. “.asia” is currently expected to launch in 2007 and after a sunrise period for trademark holders it will be available on a first come, first serviced basis to all companies and individuals based in Asia. TMDS will add “.asia” to the list of extensions which are protected by our Domain Name Watch service as soon as the domain is launched. If you would like to protect your trademarks during the sunrise period please email domains@cpaglobal.com