NIC Argentina, the registry responsible for the .ar country-code top-level domain, launched the registration of internationalized domain names (IDNs) on 8 September 2008. While the Spanish language uses the Roman script, it also uses letters with special accents, such as the letter ñ. This has posed difficulties for computers which cannot process special language characters, such as the letter ‘ñ’ in domain names. The use of IDNs resolves this difficulty for domain names and means that users of .ar domains will be able to use their Spanish regular spellings.
The sunrise period for applications to register IDNs will last until 16 December 2008, with applications being considered from 17 December 2008 to 16 March 2009. NIC Argentina has not yet announced the date from which IDN registrations will be open to the public. In the event of more than one application for the same IDN, the allocation will be decided based on which registrant was first to register its qualifying domain name.
[source: David Taylor and Brechtje Lindeboom, Lovells LLP, Paris, writing in World Trademark Report].
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