How to Protect Your Brand from Being Used in the New "XXX" Internet Domain

A new Internet Domain, .xxx, has been approved for use in the Adult Entertainment industry. The period September 7 to October 7, 2011, has been set aside for organizations with websites in the .com, .net, .edu, .mil or any other existing domains to also register their names in the new .xxx domain.  Doing so will prevent Adult Entertainment entities from adopting your brand by adding the .xxx extension when that domain goes live in December.

The Internet is home to some 255 Million websites and growing daily. The organization responsible for managing the Internet’s naming system—the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)—has responded to this explosive growth by voting to allow additional domains, such as .xxx.

• ICANN has designated September 7 to October 7, 2011, as a so-called “sunrise period” during which holders of existing domain names may act to prevent those names from being used in the .xxx domain. The sunrise period allows website owners to purchase their names in the .xxx domain.  In doing so, they will take the undesirable version of their name out of play—effectively blocking anyone else from acquiring it and using it to host pornography, sell  X-rated merchandise, or other such activities.

• There is a one-time domain registration fee, currently expected to be in the range of $50 to $75 per domain.  Even if your brand is unlikely to be attractive to an Adult Entertainment provider, this constitutes some fairly inexpensive peace of mind.

• In an unfortunate concession, the sunrise period is also the first opportunity that Adult Entertainment entities will have to reserve their domain names. This means there could be conflicting applications for the same name, which will be resolved after the sunrise period closes.  However, assuming no conflict arises by October 7, your registration should be completed successfully and your brand protected.

• Once the .xxx domain goes live in December, individuals attempting to access ‘www.yourbrand.xxx’ will be directed to a static webpage advising them that this name has been acquired and is inactive.

All .xxx domains must be requested through the ICM Registry. ICM is encouraging pre-registration at this address: http://domains.icmregistry.com/index.html.  There is no cost to pre-register .xxx domains, and doing so will enable domain name owners to receive detailed information for the sunrise period, such as confirmed fees and procedures.  You may pre-register now. You can also visit http://www.icmregistry.com/launch.php anytime for current information.

If you miss the sunrise period, some recourse will be available—although if your name has already been acquired by an entity in the Adult Entertainment domain, it may be costly to attempt to recover it or prevent its use, with no guarantee of success.

The best advice is to decide your strategy and act quickly.

Click here for a printable, sharable copy of this one-page Security Bulletin.