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Resources

Help

If you have a domain-related dispute with another party, or feel that ICANN itself has not acted properly, check the resources below for information that could move your problem toward resolution.

Dispute Resolution

Check here for assistance with a variety of problems such as a domain name transfer, unsolicited renewal, or trademark infringement.

Domain Name Dispute Resolution

Are you in the right? Check here to read official policies related to disputes between registrants and third parties over the registration and use of domain names.

Help with a Registrar Problem

As titled, this article explains how to get help when you have a problem with your registrar. Note: the advice applies to registrants under generic top-level domains only, not to country code top-level domains.

Whois Data Problem Reports

Did you search in Whois to find out who runs a domain, and you know that the Whois answer is false or inaccurate? Report it here, and help improve the accuracy of Whois.

Complaints Office

If you have a complaint about the ICANN Organization, this is where you’ll find an overview of the Complaints Office, information on how to submit a complaint, and other relevant resources.

Independent Review Process (IRP).

ICANN's Bylaws state, "Any person materially affected by a decision or action by the Board that he or she asserts is inconsistent with the Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws may submit a request for independent review of that decision or action." (Article IV, Section 3) This page answers questions about the IRP.

Board Reconsideration

ICANN's Bylaws state, "Any person or entity materially affected by an action of ICANN may request review or reconsideration of that action by the Board" (Article IV, Section 2). This page publicly displays all such requests, dating back to 1999.

Ombudsman

If you have a complaint about an act done (or not done) by ICANN staff, Board members, or members an ICANN's constituency, the ombudsman is charged with representing the interests of the public by investigating and addressing your complaint.

Website Archive

You just know it was here a while ago! If you're looking for a file you can't find on ICANN.ORG, the site was heavily revised in March 2012. You might find what you're looking for on our "old" site, linked here.
Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."