The adult entertainment industry occupies a large place on the Internet, and some of these sites can be difficult to identify. For nearly ten years, consumer advocacy and child protection groups have been pressing for the creation of distinct domain names reserved exclusively for adult entertainment. On March 18, 2011, in response to this pressure, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) decided to allow the creation of domain names ending in .xxx.
Because they are more easily identifiable, sites using the .xxx extension will be better able to target their intended public and will also be more easily blocked by parental control and corporate Internet monitoring software. ICANN has approved an organization called the ICM to monitor the granting of .xxx domain names and an organization called IFFOR to oversee development of the standards that future .xxx websites must meet.
More than 500,000 domain names ending in the .xxx extension have already been reserved and should be activated as of summer 2011. In order to avoid abusive registration of domain names ending in .xxx (e.g. www.fasken.xxx), the ICM has implemented a rights protection mechanism (RPM) for the launch period of the new domain.
This three-stage protection mechanism includes the "Sunrise B" stage, a period where trade mark holders who are not involved in the adult entertainment industry and who wish to prevent their name from appearing in a .xxx web address can do so by registering with the ICM at the following address: http://www.icmregistry.com/.
The "Sunrise B" period is set to begin in June 2011 and will last for approximately 30 days. A nominal fee (not yet announced) will be required to cover the costs surrounding blockage of the domain name. In addition, a 90-day opposition window will open on May 30, 2011, during which trade mark owners will be able to block the activation of domain names including their trade marks reserved by third parties during the "Sunrise A" period (the preregistration period for the adult entertainment industry).
It will still be possible to register with the ICM when the "Sunrise B" period is over, but recurring annual fees may then be required. The ICM will also be creating a "Rapid Takedown" mechanism to cancel clearly abusive registrations and those made in bad faith. That being said, registration with the ICM during the "Sunrise B" period should be the most affordable and effective preventative measure for blocking registration of a .xxx web address that uses your trade mark.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
