Interestingly, I have it on good authority that in terms of trademarks, eszett and ss are treated the same -- that is, in trademark lingo, a phrase that only differed by exchanging these characters from a trademark would infringe that trademark.<div>
<br></div><div>As a side note, there are many, many English trademarks that cannot be expressed literally as IDNs. Just a small sampling:<div><br></div><div>Arby’s</div><div>Baker’s Choice</div><div>Ben & Jerry’s</div>
<div>Lands’ End</div><div>Spray ’n Wash</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(26, 26, 26); line-height: 17px; ">Uncle Ben’s</span></div><div><div><div>Wendy’s</div><div>...</div><div>
<br></div><div>From the INTERNATIONAL TRADEMARK ASSOCIATION’S TRADEMARK CHECKLIST</div><div><br></div><div>Those include -- and in a far from exhaustive list - the following characters:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><form name="myform">
<h3 style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Basic Latin - </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ASCII punctuation and symbols</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: 9</span></h3>
<code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=0021">U+0021</a></code> ( ! ) EXCLAMATION MARK<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=0026">U+0026</a></code> ( & ) AMPERSAND<font class="Apple-style-span" face="monospace"><br>
</font><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=002A">U+002A</a></code> ( * ) ASTERISK<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=002C">U+002C</a></code> ( , ) COMMA<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=002E">U+002E</a></code> ( . ) FULL STOP<br>
<code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=002F">U+002F</a></code> ( / ) SOLIDUS<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=003A">U+003A</a></code> ( : ) COLON<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=003F">U+003F</a></code> ( ? ) QUESTION MARK<br>
<h3 style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">General Punctuation - </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dashes</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: 1</span></h3>
<code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=2014">U+2014</a></code> ( — ) EM DASH<br><h3 style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">General Punctuation - </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">General punctuation</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: 5</span></h3>
<code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=2018">U+2018</a></code> ( ‘ ) LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=2019">U+2019</a></code> ( ’ ) RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=201C">U+201C</a></code> ( “ ) LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK<br>
<code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=201D">U+201D</a></code> ( ” ) RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK<br><code><a target="c" href="character.jsp?a=2022">U+2022</a></code> ( • ) BULLET<br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial"><br>
This is just an indication of the kinds of things that people would want in IDNs but can't be there. (Clearly the ASCII can't be.)</font></form></span></div></div><div>Mark<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:11, Shawn Steele <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Shawn.Steele@microsoft.com">Shawn.Steele@microsoft.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">> You wouldn't know, so don't start from upper case sigma. :)<br>
<br>
</div>Ah, that's the trick. AFAICT various marketing departments don't particularly care what DNS does, they are just used to certain forms of names, so the name they wanted plastered on the side of a bus might be all-caps. (Although if I were a CamelCased company I don't think that'd be my first choice).<br>
<br>
So, for companies that might want to do this, it seems they might just register both forms. Since the actual "correct" form is clear, I don't think it matters if lookup disallowed a distinction between the two.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
- Shawn<br>
<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br></div></div></div>