Suggested Practices for Registration of Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)

This document explores the issues in the registration of internationalized domain names (IDNs). The basic IDN definition allows a very large number of possible characters in domain names, and this richness may lead to serious user confusion about similar-looking names. To avoid this confusion, the IDN registration process must impose rules that disallow some otherwise-valid name combinations. This document suggests a set of mechanisms that registries might use to define and implement such rules for a broad range of languages, including adaptation of methods developed for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean domain names. This memo provides information for the Internet community.