Patent ID: 8291048

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for registering multilingual domain names that include non-ASCII characters, the method comprising: receiving a request to register a multilingual domain name in a top-level domain (TLD), the multilingual domain name having a specified second-level domain name portion including non-ASCII characters from a non-ASCII character set, each character in the non-ASCII character set having a representative numeric value, wherein a sequence of the representative numeric values represents the non-ASCII characters of the specified second-level domain name portion in the received request; generating an ASCII-Compatible Encoding (ACE) for the specified second-level domain name portion based on the non-ASCII character set and the sequence of representative numeric values for the second-level domain name portion; constructing an ASCII domain name whose second-level domain name portion is the generated ACE and whose top-level domain name portion is the TLD; determining that the constructed ASCII domain name is available to be registered in the TLD; searching for the sequence of representative numeric values throughout at least one database that includes multilingual domain names for a plurality of non-ASCII character sets; determining that the sequence of representative numeric values has already been reserved when the sequence of representative numeric values appears as a reserved multilingual domain name anywhere in the database; and upon determining that the constructed ASCII domain name is available to be registered and that the sequence of representative numeric values has not been reserved, registering the multilingual domain name in the TLD.