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July 21, 2011

David Canton

XXX Protection Racket?

The .XXX top level domain application period is underway. This has been a very controversial topic. The XXX domain is available for users in the "sponsored community", being the "adult entertainment industry".

One of the criticisms of this TLD is the fear that people will try to register domains using names or trade-marks of those outside of the sponsored community. disney.XXX, or apple.XXX for example.

So a procedure is in place called "Sunrise B" where for a short period of time (September 7 to October 28), trade-mark owners can apply to have their marks blocked from registration. The wrinkle is that it costs hundreds of dollars to do that. Sunrise B applications are now being accepted.

So if you want to block your brand so others can't use it to get a XXX TLD – the time to act is now.

But doesn't this seem like a protection racket?

David Canton is a business lawyer and trade-mark agent with Harrison Pensa LLP in London, Ontario. David's practice focuses on technology issues and technology companies. David is co-author of Legal Land Mines in E-Commerce published by McGraw-Hill, writes a weekly column on Today’s Business Law for the London Free Press and the Canoe.ca Technology news, and blogs at canton.elegal.ca. 
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One Comment on “XXX Protection Racket?”

  1. Tom Dickey says:
    July 23, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    Trademark owners can also apply to have their trademarks placed on an official registry kept by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). The “wrinkle” with this is that the trademark owner must pay the USPTO a $375 “application fee” to even start the registration process. Why hasn't anyone ever referred to the process of registering one’s trademark as “protection racket”? Is it because the process (like any process more complex than a dog license) actually costs "hundreds of dollars"?

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