We are about three months away from the grand opening of the somewhat controversial .xxx top-level domain, and ICM Registry, the company administrating the launch, is understandably busy doing some prep work for that special event.
After the sunrise period of the TLD launch officially started yesterday, interested parties have begun pre-registering or restricting their brands and names. So if you’re interested in the new TLD, whether for protective or prospective purposes, you better act immediately.
Registering a .xxx Domain
Right now, ICM Registry’s site says the registration is only open to people who intend to ‘register and develop’ a .xxx domain, but it seems there aren’t any restrictions placed on what it means to intend to register and develop. So, if you just want to own example.xxx and have it redirect to example.com, that’s likely an acceptable use.
If you have a registered trademark and don’t intend to own or develop a .xxx domain, but you don’t want to risk the pornification of your brand name, now you can also secure your trademark and the matching domain from being registered – this is probably the option Disney is taking. However, there’s still some fee for this option.
Starting November 8th, ‘landrush’ phase of the launch begins. This is the period when everyone who has a GoDaddy account starts haphazardly buying domains to hold. Unfortunately for them, ICM is withholding a number of dictionary words and /or phrases as premium names to be sold at auction.
