New .XXX Top Level Domain Approved. The Steps You Need To Take Now To Insure That You Don't See a [yourname].XXX Domain In The Future!
You may have read recently that ICANN (Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers) has approved the new top level domain (TLD) of .XXX. Obviously, this is intended for the adult entertainment industry and TLDs with that extension will begin to be issued in the near future. However, aside from any passing prurient interest you may have in mentioning this factoid in social chatter, does this affect you in any way?
It does if you would not want to Google your name, trademark or tradename in the future and find that name with a .XXX extension. So, if you are concerned that this might happen either because someone might want to take advantage of the popularity of your name or you have a really sick friend that might want to hold this over you as a pathetic practical joke, here is what you need to do now.
ICM Registry has obtained the rights to act as the registrar for the .XXX domain. They have set up a procedure to address your concerns about having your name or tradename associated with a .XXX domain. The procedure is referred to as Sunrise A, B and C and offers you two avenues to avoid the result we describe above. Obviously, one avenue would be to apply for all the domain names you want to protect with the .XXX extension and then just not use them for anything. However, you would still show up in a search on WHOIS as the owner. This is the Sunrise A procedure. The preferred route would be Sunrise B, which allows domain holders and trademark holders to apply to block use of those names with the offending extension. This is the explanation from the ICM website:
"Sunrise B is for rights owners from outside the [adult entertainment industry]. Names secured through Sunrise B will not result in the registration of a conventional, resolving domain name at the .xxx registry. Instead, these names will be reserved and blocked from live use. The applied for string will resolve to a standard plain page indicating only that the string is reserved from use through ICM’s rights protection program."
Since time could be of the essence, head over to this site or have someone do it for you and open an account and apply to reserve the appropriate names. At some point in the process (after the original submission), you may be asked to prove you have the rights to the names so be prepared to do that.
Now, don't you feel better?
Very good ideas, thank you for sharing!