On the 16th of May it was revealed that end user costs for opting-out of .XXX to protect a non-adult trademark or name will be anything up to $300. IPRota, the company responsible for implementing the pre-launch rights protection mechanism of .XXX, have also released timing information for the .XXX opt-out period, known as ‘Sunrise B’. This will begin in September 2011 and run for about a month, giving trademark owners a window to protect themselves from having their brand or business names ‘hijacked’ by someone wanting Xbox.XXX, for example.
According to the IPRota whitepaper, entitled ‘Taking Control: Safeguarding Brand Owners’ Rights in .XXX’, the one-off cost to the end user, set by individual registrars, will likely be in the region of $200 to $300.
The details of Sunrise B were revealed at the International Trademark Association annual meeting in San Francisco. The paper outlines how trademark owners operating outside the adult industry can safeguard their marks in .XXX.
IPRota director Jonathan Robinson commented: “This year will see the introduction of .XXX, arguably the most significant web suffix since .com was launched back in 1985. Although the top-level domain name – TLD – is targeted at the adult industry, its introduction in September 2011 will have far reaching implications. With tens of thousands of adult entertainment website owners already pre-reserving their domains, this white paper outlines how trademark owners’, operating outside the adult industry, can safeguard their marks in .XXX.”
The document discusses how ICM Registry has developed a comprehensive rights protection mechanism (RPM) for the launch period. The company is providing an opportunity for rights owners, from outside the adult entertainment industry i.e. the sponsored community, in the case of .XXX, to opt-out. The opt-out effectively blocks names at the .XXX registry and means they cannot be used as conventional web addresses. This feature, provided for a one-time fee, will only be available to rights owners during the pre-launch (aka Sunrise) period.
.XXX was given final approval by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on 18 March 2011 and grants .XXX the same rights as .com, .net and .co.uk.
