8:21 AM
Jon Ballard
ICANN (The domain name governing body) has recently announced the release of .xxx domain extensions. Members of the adult entertainment industry are now submitting registration requests for domain names with the new .XXX extension which correspond to their existing domain names and trademarks.
Many of our clients have received solicitations from domain registrars encouraging them to file an application to block their domain from the .xxx extension with costs for this service between $200-$1,000 per year.
I'm not a lawyer but here is my opinion on this:
As the Internet grows ICANN is going to keep coming out with extensions (.biz. net .xxx). I feel that it's a waste of time and money to keep buying up extensions just to protect your brand. People looking for a legit product or service won't be typing in yourdomain.xxx they Google you or use the domain printed on your marketing materials.
At Foremost Media, we own the .com, .net and .biz extensions and we use them for different purposes like a support site, email and server routing. I wont be blocking ForemostMedia.xxx. In my opinion this is a tactic by domain registrars to get you to spend money. I would also believe that .xxx sites would be the subject of heavy filtering on search engines so unless your looking for porn they I just don't see .xxx domains popping up on a Foremost Media searches.
Many of our clients have received solicitations from domain registrars encouraging them to file an application to block their domain from the .xxx extension with costs for this service between $200-$1,000 per year.
I'm not a lawyer but here is my opinion on this:
As the Internet grows ICANN is going to keep coming out with extensions (.biz. net .xxx). I feel that it's a waste of time and money to keep buying up extensions just to protect your brand. People looking for a legit product or service won't be typing in yourdomain.xxx they Google you or use the domain printed on your marketing materials.
At Foremost Media, we own the .com, .net and .biz extensions and we use them for different purposes like a support site, email and server routing. I wont be blocking ForemostMedia.xxx. In my opinion this is a tactic by domain registrars to get you to spend money. I would also believe that .xxx sites would be the subject of heavy filtering on search engines so unless your looking for porn they I just don't see .xxx domains popping up on a Foremost Media searches.
If you do decide to pass on blocking your the .xxx version of your trademark or domain ICANN also provides opportunities to challenge trade mark violations in domains down the road via their Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ("UDRP").
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From a legal point of view trade mark owners not in the adult industry can assert their word marks and apply to block a third party registering a XXX domain name which includes their own word mark with any “negative” results that may follow on.
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If you are in the adult entertainment industry or another adult industry then clearly it’s in your interests to apply for registration but if not then what’s the issue? Well you don’t need to apply to register a XXX domain yourself as that may have “negative” results for you but the viable alternative of applying to block third party registration means the XXX domain is not available or “reserved for use” for life of the domain.
The commercial advantage of the application to block is that for a relatively small one off fee you do not then have the time and cost of having to bring litigation or invoking the domain dispute resolution procedure post third party registration.
I wont be blocking ForemostMedia.xxx. In my assessment this is a tactic by area registrars to get you to absorb money.
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