The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
is set to release the new .xxx top level domain intended for use by
the adult entertainment industry later this year. As with all top
level domains (i.e. .com, .net. .org, .us, etc.), brand owners must
be vigilant in protecting their trademarks as there is no doubt
that cybersquatters and other opportunists will do their best to
take advantage of this new domain name release at the expense of
trademark owners.
To prevent the registration of .xxx domains that correspond with
your company's trademarks, there will be a pre-launch
"sunrise" period exclusively for trademark owners not in
the adult entertainment industry. During this sunrise period,
trademark owners will have the ability to secure and block specific
.xxx domain names from being acquired by others. This sunrise
period will likely last for approximately 30 days, during which
time trademark owners can pay a one-time fee to block their
trademarks from being registered as .xxx domains by others. Once
registered, Internet users attempting to access YourTrademark.xxx
will encounter a static webpage that indicates that the domain was
acquired as part of the Intellectual Property Protection program.
The fees for securing a .xxx domain name have not yet been set, but
will likely be around $50-$75 per domain.
Although trademark owners must wait until the sunrise period to
secure and block .xxx domains, the .xxx registry is encouraging
trademark owners to "pre-register" their desired .xxx
domains at http://domains.icmregistry.com/index.html. There is no
cost for pre-registering .xxx domains and pre-registration will
help ensure that trademark owners will be provided with information
for participating in the sunrise period.
Proactively seeking registration of YourTrademark.xxx domains
during the sunrise period is the best strategy for protecting
trademarks in the .xxx domain space. Although reactive measures
will be available for addressing abusive domain registrations,
these measures will be more expensive and forcing transfer of
YourTrademark.xxx once it has been registered by someone else will
not always be possible.
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.
