Before the end of 2011, there will be a new top level domain (“TLD”) available from ICANN – only the third time a new TLD has been introduced by ICANN and the first since 2004. This TLD is .xxx and it is intended for use by the adult entertainment industry. Clearly, many trademark and service mark owners do not want their businesses associated with a .xxx TLD.

Because of these concerns, the registrar responsible for the .xxx TLD is opening up a limited “Sunrise” period during which brand owners can file to “block” their registered trade and service marks from being used by a third party in a .xxx domain name for a ten (10) year period. This option to block third parties from use of a brand is currently only available to owners of trademark or service mark registrations of national effect in any jurisdiction and will only block the registered mark, not variations of that mark. The Sunrise period opens on September 7, 2011 and is set to close on October 28, 2011. [1] Once the Sunrise period opens, owners of trademark registrations will be able to make a filing with their domain name registrars and pay a fee to put the block in place. The exact fee that will be required by the domain name registrar is not yet determined, but it is anticipated to be in the range of US $500 for each blocked domain name. Although this is not an insubstantial cost, we anticipate that it is going to be more expensive to object to or recover a domain name that a third party registers in the future.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like to have your company’s brands blocked from use as .xxx domain names or with any questions or concerns you have regarding domain names or trademarks.