Businesses are going defensive with .XXX with 80 per cent of pre-registrations coming from outside the adult industry says one UK-based registrar. The registrar, Easyspace, while accounting for only a few hundred pre-registrations, says businesses and individuals have been able to register their interests for the new .XXX domain name registrations ahead of the launch of the .XXX pre-registrations facility with Easyspace.com and only 20 per cent of those interests are from the sexually oriented adult industry. “As we expected, the early indications are that non-adult industry businesses have realised the need to protect trademarks and brands in dot XXX,” said Sarah Haran, Managing Director of Easyspace. For those interested in registering .XXX domain names, the launch process will follow the following: SUNRISE A – 7 Sept – 28 Oct Sunrise A is dedicated to members of the adult Sponsored Community with either verifiable trademark rights or owners of exact matching domains in other IANA TLDs which is also known as “Grandfathering.” SUNRISE B – 7 Sept – 28 Oct Sunrise B was created especially for non-adult Intellectual Property holders who are non-members of the adult Sponsored Community with verifiable trademark rights so they can block their domains in the .XXX sTLD. LANDRUSH – 8 Nov – 25 Nov Landrush is for members of the adult Sponsored Community but NOT on a first come, first served basis. Unlike Sunrise A and Sunrise B, there are no qualification requirements needed for Landrush. Applications for competing names will go to a closed-auction at the end of the Landrush period. GENERAL AVAILABILITY – From 6 December on General Availability is when members of the adult Sponsored Community get regular, resolving names on a first come, first served basis. Non-members of the adult Sponsored Community can also get “Non-Resolving” names. To pre-register your .XXX domain name, check out America Registry here .
