While it has been in the buzz for quite sometime that the advent and launch of new .xxx sponsored top level domains (sTLD), which are vested for adult entertainment, are going to raise speculations and concerns amongst the business and the trademark owners for the probable misuse of their brand names and trademarks. But the relief comes along as the ICM registry has given provisions to the trademark owners who do not wish to be included under these domains. The ICM registry has allocated a period called as the Sunrise B, for the Trademark and Intellectual property owners to block and opt out from the abovementioned domains and to ensure that their trademarks or brand names are not registered as domain names by others in .xxx domain.
Such brand or trademark names will be reserved from registrations or blocked from registrations and will be removed from the pool of domain names available for future registrations provided that there are no conflicts with the Sunrise A period applicants. To summarize, I can say that while internet is marching towards discovering new horizons, it is utmost important to realize the fact that protection of trademarks and brand names are extremely important to maintain your business and trade integrity and at the same time to avoid your Intellectual Property getting trapped under future conflicts. So keep a keen observation around to maintain your Brand Integrity.
(Image by Claudio S Geoffroy)
