Law firms and the .xxx top-level domain
Posted on 4 July 2011
Branding
Law firms may wish to take steps to ensure their brand is protected from being associated with adult material, a possible risk posed by the imminent introduction of the new .xxx top-level domain.
A new domain name .xxx is due to be released in September as the primary top-level domain name for the adult entertainment industry. The registry in charge of this domain has agreed to allow registered trademark holders to ‘block’ domains corresponding to their trademark so that they may not be used for adult entertainment purposes.
Applications to block a domain will be accepted from 7th September and applicants must be able to prove ownership of a registered trade mark. Although we explored the documentation in detail, we have not yet been able to establish whether this needs to be a US trademark.
Full details of the timeline for implementation of the new domain are available at about.xxx, which at the time of writing is safe for viewing at work.
If you have any questions about how this might affect your firm, please post in the comments and we will do our best to help.
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Mike Bean said:
Taylor Wessing have just published a much more in-depth discussion of the issues which you might like to read if you need more detail on this.
Access their article here: http://bit.ly/qs6SKr
on 20 July 2011