Archive for the ‘.xxx’ Category
Request for .xxx domain name denied.
United Kingdom insurance company BGL Group Limited, better known as CompareTheMarket.com, is the first complainant to lose a UDRP for a .xxx domain name.
The company filed the complaint against UK resident Jon Watkins, who registered the domain back in December when .xxx became generally available.
But as I’ve argued previously, it can be rather difficult to prove bad faith in the registration of a .xxx domain name. Most complainants aren’t in the adult entertainment business. And few .xxx domain names will be parked, which could have result in PPC ads related to a complainant. So unless the mark is very famous (and not descriptive/generic) or the owner of the domain tries to sell the domain to the complainant, proving registration in bad faith isn’t easy.
That’s what happened here. A Czech Arbitration Court panel wrote:
But Complainant fails to prove bad faith registration or use of the domain. Complainant states that the domain is “completely inactive”. Complainant does not show that Respondent tried to sell the domain to Complainant, has registered other infringing names, or otherwise has tried to profit from the domain or cause any other harm to Complainant. Respondent is not shown to have had prior UDRP cases in which he has been an unsuccessful Defendant. Clearly, “compare the market” could relate to myriad different types of markets and myriad different comparisons within each one, as demonstrated by a simple web search.
I’m not quite sure why BGL went after this domain name. If it were an active domain name with porn on it and it was getting search rankings I’d understand. Otherwise this seems like a waste of money.
Companies have filed over 20 UDRP cases against .xxx domain names. None had lost prior to this case.
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BGZ.xxx given to bank in Poland.
.xxx UDRP cases present some interesting scenarios that are not common amongst other top level domains.
For example, if the .xxx domain name at issue is just three letters and it doesn’t resolve, how do you prove that it was registered in bad faith? How can the complainant prove that it was the intended “victim” of the registration?
This was first brought up in a case for HEB.xxx.
HEB.xxx didn’t resolve, so it would have been hard for the grocery chain by that name to claim rights to it. Oh, except that the owner had contacted the grocery chain and shown a pattern of similar behavior.
Now the domain name BGZ.xxx has been transferred as a result of a UDRP case. BGZ.xxx is a little different but contains some “gotchas” that doomed the respondent.
The case was brought by Polish bank BG? S.A.
The owner of the domain set up a pornographic web site at BGZ.xxx that he said stood for “Bad Girls Zone”.
That seems plausible. But there were two problems. First, the registrant also lives in Poland, where BGZ has 370 branches. Still a plausible case for the respondent, though.
The kicker is that the registrant also registered the domain name for another bank in Poland, DnB NORD. That was enough to convince the panel that the registrant was indeed targeting BG? S.A.
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Letters threaten legal action if trademarks are registered as .xxx domains.
Free Speech Coalition, which has been fairly quiet since organizing a poorly attended protest at an ICANN meeting in San Francisco earlier this year, is making some noise again.
The group that represents some adult webmasters has provided a template “Trademark Protection Letter” for adult web site owners to send to .xxx registry ICM Registry. People can customize the letter with their list of trademarks to put ICM “on notice”.
According to the letter, ICM Registry has a greater responsibility than generic registries to protect specific trademarks because it’s clear that they will be used in direct competition with the owners. The letter states:
In contrast, if the holder of a trademark engages in selling specific products and services, a third party purchasing a domain identical to the trademark in a generic TLD, such as .NET or .BIZ
only improperly competes against the trademark holder if the use of the domain name is directly
in competition with the holder’s area of business.
The letter concludes with a threat:
ICM is now on notice that the registration of any domain name using the .XXX extension that is identical or confusingly similar to one of the trademarks or domains listed on Exhibit A will violate (COMPANY NAME)’s intellectual property rights and constitute an unfair business practice. ICM must take steps to prevent such activity before it can occur. Failure to take affirmative steps to prevent this conduct will establish ICM’s substantial liability.
(COMPANY NAME) welcomes the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with ICM, should ICM choose to resolve these matters other than through litigation.
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- Fox Loses Free Speech Trademark Battle with DISH Network
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Users might have a hard time reaching Indian .xxx site.
I was caught a bit off guard when reading Elliot’s story today about Masala.xxx launching.
This is apparently an adult site aimed at India.
Although I don’t believe anything is done yet, India is high up on list of countries that will try to block .xxx domain names from resolving.
It seems odd that you’d launch a .xxx site aimed squarely and India in the face of it being hard for your target visitors to actually resolve your site.
But perhaps people just visit these sites through proxies anyway.
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How many .xxx domain names will be registered in the first year?
ICM Registry says it has received nearly 900,000 “expressions of interest” for its .xxx top level domain name. It has also extended the sunrise period for trademark holders, apparently due to demand.
Anyone could submit an expression of interest in a .xxx domain name and some of them are for the same domain name, so no one has paid the $70+ per domain for these yet. But that will soon change.
It’s clear there will be a lot of registrations, and not all from willing participants. There are also already over two dozen domain name registrars signed up to accept registrations — most notably GoDaddy.
So, how many domains do you think will be registered by one year after general availability, which would be December 7, 2012?
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
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Group to help set policy for new .xxx domain name.
One of the interesting quirks about the new .xxx domain name is that it will help fund a group called International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR).
IFFOR will get $10 from every domain registration in order to initiate “a series of policies for responsible business practices and conduct within the .XXX online adult-entertainment community”.
Today the group sent out a press release formally announcing the members of the IFFOR board as well as initial members of its Policy Council.
Board members include:
Stuart Lawley – CEO of ICM Registry, which is running .xxx
Clyde Beattie – CEO of Yorkland Investment Corp
Sebastien Bachollet, CEO of BBS Consulting and a member of the Board of Directors of ICANN
Policy Council members include:
Fred Cate – Professor of Law at the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington and director of the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research
Bob Corn-Revere, Partner at Davis Wright Tremain
Nadine Strossen – Served as president of ACLU from 1991 through 2008
Five more Policy Council members will be announced within the next couple months.
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Registry will get a windfall in initial fees to block registrations of trademarks.
.XXX could set a record when it comes to defensive domain name registrations.
A “defensive registration” is when a brand registers a domain name solely to keep it out of the hands of cybersquatters or competitors.
When you look back at previous new TLDs you’ll find a number of large brands defensively registered their domains. But you’ll still find lots of brands that don’t bother to register .info, .biz, and other newer extensions.
When .tel came out, some companies that were aware of it didn’t bother to register. They didn’t think it was the end of the world if someone else nabbed the domain name.
With .Co there was a bit more concern because of its similarity to .com.
But .xxx scares them.
Law firms are emailing their clients (I received one such notice last night). The trademark press is constantly writing about it.
And if there’s one thing most brands don’t want to be associated with, it’s porn.
Thankfully, .xxx registry ICM Registry is providing an innovative way for these companies to defensively register their domains. It’s more of a “non-registration” that will block the domain from being registered by another party.
So let’s say Verizon is worried about someone registering Verizon.xxx. It doesn’t have to register the domain annually for itself; it can pay a one time fee to block it for as long as ICM runs the .xxx registry.
This fee is expected to be about $200-$300 at the retail level.
But brands will have only 30 days to take advantage of this blocking offer, so they should educate themselves quickly.
Given the press’ inclination to write about .xxx, I think ICM Registry is going to get a lot of these defensive registrations.
That said, smaller brands probably don’t need to worry unless they have enemies. At about $75 per year for registration, .xxx cybersquatters will have to limit their activities.
It will also be interesting to see how much certain brands are willing to pay to prevent registrations in other controversial top level domain names possibly on the horizon, including .sex and .porn.
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Some adult operators want to boycott .xxx. Yeah, good luck with that.
I understand why some adult web site owners are upset about .xxx.
But trying to boycott the new top level domain name is a ridiculous idea.
Before its rally at the ICANN meeting in San Francisco the Free Speech Coalition said it would try to organize a boycott should .xxx pass. At the time I wrote:
If .xxx gets the green light anyway, Free Speech Coalition is calling for a boycott of .xxx. That would be difficult; surely competitors would snap up each others’ domain names.
Now Free Speech Coalition is following through with its boycott idea.
It won’t work.
It’s difficult to boycott a finite resource. It’s like American’s trying to boycott oil. What else will they turn to?
Scratch that. Boycotting second level domains under a new TLD is even more difficult than boycotting oil. It’s like your car can only handle one type of gasoline. If you don’t buy it someone who’s angry with you will, and then you won’t have anything to fuel your car.
Some types of boycott work. If I’m mad at a company and I have alternatives to its products, a boycott might work.
But there are no alternatives here. A boycott is one big game of chicken. It’s just challenging your competitors to buy a unique resource that will give them a competitive edge. Or at least hurt you.
It’s time for Free Speech Coalition to think a little bit more strategically. Perhaps it should consider applying for an unrestricted .sex when the new TLD round opens. Or .porn.
That’s something it could rally its base around.
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Related posts:
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.XXX gets the yellow light at board meeting.
The ICANN Board adopted a resolution yesterday that will allow ICM Registry’s application for .xxx to move forward. But it may not be a quick process, and a new can of worms will be opened allowing for another comment period on the actual registry contract. Here’s the resolution that was adopted:
Whereas, ICANN’s General Counsel has completed the expedited due diligence regarding ICM Registry, as directed by the Board, and has concluded that ICM has represented that its Application for the .XXX sTLD is still current and that there have been no negative changes in ICM’s qualifications.
Whereas, ICANN Staff is in consultation with ICM on a new proposed registry agreement for the .XXX sTLD and expects to receive a finalized proposal from ICM.
RESOLVED (2010.08.05.21), upon receipt of ICM’s application documentation, ICANN Staff is authorized to post ICM’s supporting documents and proposed registry agreement for the .XXX sTLD for public comment for a period of no less than 30 days.
RESOLVED (2010.08.05.22), upon completion of public comment period, ICANN Staff shall provide the Board with a summary of the public comments and shall make a recommendation to the Board as to whether the proposed registry agreement for the .XXX sTLD is consistent with GAC advice.
RESOLVED (2010.08.05.23), once the Board has received the above public comment summary and recommendation from the ICANN Staff regarding the proposed registry agreement for the .XXX sTLD, the Board shall at its next possible meeting, consider this recommendation, and determine, consistent with the ICANN Bylaws, whether a GAC consultation shall be required.
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.XXX to get green light, but the value to ICM registry has wilted.
Ex-ICANN staffer Kieren McCarthy is reporting that ICANN’s general counsel has spilled the beans on .xxx, saying ICANN will approve the new top level domain name tomorrow during its board meeting.
Make no mistake, this is a monumental moment for ICANN. If it were up to the organization it would have let .xxx die years ago. But an independent review panel found ICANN erred. And, despite having final authority, the board is ready to accept the panel’s finding.
But it also means something for new TLDs. Many new TLD applicants are in favor of .xxx being approved. Not because they give a damn about .xxx, but because it gives them a higher likelihood of being able to eventually introduce their own planned TLDs.
So it’s a victory for process and a victory for new TLD supporters. But what about ICM Registry, which will run .xxx (after jumping through a couple more hoops)? It’s bittersweet at best. It has waited a long time and spent inordinate amounts of money to get to this point. It kind of reminds me of Telnic, which waited nearly a decade to launch .tel. From the time it came up with the idea to when it released the domain name, the world of internet communications changed rapidly thanks to social networking. That all but killed the potential of the domain.
I don’t know much about the online adult world, but The Domains author Michael Berkens does. And he thinks ICM Registry may have missed the boat. The world of adult entertainment has changed drastically since .xxx was first proposed. The economics aren’t nearly as rosy.
So, like .tel, the eventual approval to run .xxx may have come to late to make it a viable business. (No pun intended.)
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Related posts:
- ICANN Delays .XXX (Again)
- ICANN Board Drops Bomb on Registrars Hoping to Launch New TLDs
- ICANN Board to Consider “Expressions of Interest” for New TLDs at December Meeting
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