Trademark Owners Defensive Registration of .XXX Domains

Domain name disputes will certainly increase as the rollout  of .XXX continues forward.  There has been significant controversy about whether companies with registered trademarks should be defensively precluding registration of their brand names during the .XXX Sunrise period.  Our internet law attorneys have advised certain clients to do so. 

One university has taken a defensive approach by registering variations of its university name on the .XXX gTLD.

The Huffington Post reports that colleges and universities around the country are swiftly registering their brand names under the .XXX gTLDs in order to prevent parody use of their brand names. 

"I think you can look at the 'Girls Gone Wild' phenomenon and figure (adult websites) may aim at the college-aged demographic," Deborah Douglas, spokeswoman at Chicago State University which registered csu.xxx and chicagostateuniversity.xxx, told the Chicago Tribune. "We need to protect the integrity of our students and our brand. Porn and parasite, you can put those in the same sentence."