2012 April 12by Michael H. Berkens
The ICM Registry, the operator for the .XXX top-level domain (TLD) announced it made application for the new gTLD’s in SEX, .PORN and .ADULT.
According to the press release issues this morning if ICM were to get any or all of the new extensions the owner of the matching .XXX domain would be given a grandfather right to acquire the matching name in the new extension.
Here is the balance of the press release:
“ICM Registry has worked for more than a decade to create .XXX which has become a globally accepted and responsible place for adult online entertainment to thrive in an easily recognizable self-regulated environment,” said Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry. “We are dedicated to protecting interested stakeholders by providing the latest technology and the best domains which is why we created the .XXX TLD. We chose to submit applications for additional TLDs to spare .XXX participants from needless expense and to ensure the TLDs will be run in the same trustworthy and appropriate ways that .XXX is today.”
If awarded these new TLDs, ICM Registry is offering an unprecedented “grandfathering” clause and will automatically reserve matching names at no cost for those who already have .XXX domains. .XXX registrants can chose to do nothing and the matching names will never be released under the new TLD suffixes. If however, registrants choose to register the new names for use, there will be a nominal fee. This means .XXX domain holders can potentially triple their exposure and value of their holdings, while brand and trademark holders who own .XXX domain names are automatically protected and will not have to register for the new domain names.
“ICM Registry has invested just under two million dollars in these applications to support our existing customers,” said Lawley. “By offering the grandfathering clause at no charge, we are demonstrating our commitment to our adult entertainment community and will not collect fees for this from anyone who already has purchased a .XXX domain by the appropriate cut-off date.”
Each of these applications may face opposition from members of the Government Advisory Council (GAC). Although some governments expressed opposition at various times to ICM’s application to run the .XXX registry, members of the GAC have much stronger power under the new gTLD program than they did under the rules in effect when ICM applied.
It will be interesting to see if Manwin who has sued ICM over the .XXX extension for anti-trust will make application for any of these three extensions as well or any other “adult” oriented extension.
Also now that the deadline to apply for new gTLD’s has been pushed back a week until April 20th it will be interesting to see if any new applications come in based off of this announcement.
Porn In The Valley 