Public Interest Registry Announces Sunrise Period For New Internationalized Domain Names

-- Registered Trademark Holders Now Eligible to Submit Applications for Three New Top-Level Domains

RESTON, Virginia, April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Interest Registry – the not-for-profit operator of the .org domain – today launched the first registration phase, known as the Sunrise Period, for its three new Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). Qualified domain trademark holders can now submit applications for each of these three new domains which translate to "organisation" or "institution" in non-Latin-based scripts – one in Devanagari, one in Cyrillic, and one in simplified Chinese. Registration will open to all interested parties beginning May 27.

By allowing organisations to brand their website addresses in localized scripts, Public Interest Registry is providing opportunities for organisations to better communicate their mission, activities and accomplishments to audiences who speak and write in these widely used scripts. These new domains further demonstrate Public Interest Registry's commitment to helping organisations maximize their audience reach on a global scale.

"The launch of these international domain names allows us to continue expanding upon our ongoing mission of making the Internet a global, accessible place for organisations worldwide," said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry. "Now more than ever, organisations will have the opportunity to heighten communication with native users of Devanagari, Cyrillic and Chinese scripts, all while advancing their missions and causes."

Currently, there are approximately:

• 143.5 million people in Russia using Russian Cyrillic as the official alphabet for their national language
• 497 million people speaking Hindi as a first language and 120 million as a second language.
• 1.4 billion people speaking and writing in some form of Chinese.

As of December 2013, .org registrations in Russia totaled more than 50,900 making Russia one of the largest .org markets globally. Those organizations and individuals who register their domain names in the new Cyrillic IDN will be able to establish deeper connections and increased awareness through the use of native Cyrillic script in their website addresses.

"Across the globe, IDNs are helping website owners better connect with their local audiences, and we believe the same will be true for future owners of the Cyrillic domain," said Alexander Panov, CEO, RU-CENTER. "We are delighted to work with Public Interest Registry to bring the Cyrillic IDN to Russia."

In recent years, Public Interest Registry has emerged at the forefront of support for use of alternative scripts, having worked closely with standards-setting bodies and members of the engineering community to create and launch a number of alternative scripts for second-level names associated with .org. To date, the registrar supports 11 IDNs available for user adoption for .org in languages that include Danish, German, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish, among others.

For more information about Public Interest Registry or for the full list of registrars offering the new Cyrillic domain, please visit www.pir.org.

About Public Interest Registry
Public Interest Registry is a nonprofit corporation that operates the .org top-level domain -- the world's third largest "generic" top-level domain with more than 10 million domain names registered worldwide. As an advocate for collaboration, safety and security on the Internet, Public Interest Registry's mission is to empower the global noncommercial community to use the Internet more effectively, and to take a leadership position among Internet stakeholders on policy and other issues relating to the domain naming system. Public Interest Registry was founded by the Internet Society (http://www.internetsociety.org) in 2002 and is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.

Contact:
Lindsay Hyman
+1-202-223-9260
pir@allisonpr.com