First cybersquatting case involving Asian characters

[Woz]

The Japanese company Sankyo seems to have won the first cybersquatting case with the new ccharacter domains against a Mr Zhu from Shantou (a lovely city - Woz) in China.

Mr Zhu rationale for registering the domain was that the two character name "literally means "three together" in order to publicize an art salon which would bring together literature, music and painting."

Full article here [nandotimes.com].

Onya
Woz

[Gorufu]

It will be interesting to see what happens if there is a dispute between a Japanese and Chinese company when they both have legitimate rights to a Chinese/Japanese character domain.

Identical kanji characters are usually different words in Chinese and Japanese but they are the same word and meaning in English.

[Woz]

Exactly, I think a lot of people are starting to wake up about the "internationalityness" of all of this. People are quite happy to throw around glib comments about the new global community, but it brings it's own set of challenges that few have thought about. Interesting times ahead.

Onya
Woz

[Woz]

Another case of cybersquatting involving China but this one with a twist.

A Chinese company registered a domain name in Native Language, whether in Characters or Pinyin (the romanisation of Chinese) is unclear in the article, and is now filing suit against another company who registerd and uploaded a site in the English version of the Chinese domain name.

An interesting concept that could have wide reaching implications if successful although, to be honest, the implications would be nigh impossible to sort out let alone enforce. Still, one to watch.

Full article here [insidechina.com]

The thot plickens, er I mean the plot thickens.

Onya
Woz