The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (“CIRA”) is scheduled to allow registration of .CA Internationalized Domain Names (“IDNs”) in January 2013.

.CA IDNs will use French characters such as:

• é, ë, ê, è;
• â, à, æ;
• ô, œ;
• ù, û, ü;
• ç;
• î, ï; and
• ÿ.

CIRA will use bundling to support the registration of .CA IDNs. Under this concept, the French version of a .CA domain name (with accented characters such as those above) will only be available to the registrant of the English equivalent of the domain name. For example, as CIRA states, only the registrant of www.preside.ca will have the right to register www.préside.ca. In addition, the domain names must all be held by the same registrar under the same registrant contact.

We will continue to keep you apprised of the developments regarding .CA IDNs as more information becomes available. In the meantime, CIRA has published “Internationalized Domain Names FAQs” available through a link on CIRA’s IDN Consultation website page.