Calendar
- The vienna convention on the international sale of goods: should it be set aside with a contractual clause? May 31st, 2012
- Intellectual property abroad: international strategy to protect patents and trade-marks June 5th, 2012
- Ethics and lawyers ethics committees in hospital settings September 14th, 2012
TO EXXXCLUDE OR NOT TO EXXXCLUDE YOUR TRADE-MARK: THAT IS THE QUESTION FROM NOW UNTIL OCTOBER 28, 2011
October 6th, 2011After 10 years of intense debate, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization responsible for managing domain names, authorized last spring the creation of .xxx domain names for use by the adult industry.
These new domain names offer certain advantages for web surfers, because they will be easily identifiable by the target audience and easily blocked by parental filters. At the same time, they carry certain drawbacks for trade-mark holders not operating in the adult industry.
Unless you block your trade-mark with a domain name registrar accredited for the .xxx domain names, a third party could register an .xxx domain name corresponding to your registered trade-mark and decide to use it in order to steer web users to an “adult” site.
In order to avoid this problem, a process has been set up to allow registered trade-mark owners to require that their trade-marks be excluded from the pool of “adult” domain names available for registration. This process is open until October 28, 2011. This exclusion request will prevent any third party from registering an .xxx domain name corresponding to your registered trade-mark. The costs involved and the expiry date of the exclusion order will vary depending on the choice of accredited registrar.
We would be pleased to answer any questions that you may have regarding the new .xxx domain names and to assist you with any exclusion request you may wish to file.