ICM registry which operates the .XXX registry, announced today that the Sunrise period for .PORN and .ADULT will be made available for a thirty day (30) period to trademark holders who are registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH), as required under ICANN’s Rights Protection Mechanism starting March 1, 2015
After Sunrise has closed, the next phase of the .PORN and .ADULT launch will be a thirty (30) day Limited Registration Period, referred to as the Domain Matching Program.
The Domain Matching Program will be from April 15th to May 15th 2015.
The Domain Matching Program will allow .XXX stakeholders to register any available directly matching second level names in .PORN or .ADULT, before those names are offered to the general public.
The Domain Matching Program will also be available to trademark owners that successfully applied during .XXX’s Sunrise B program.
The Domain Matching Program is explained in greater detail at http://www.icmregistry.com/programs/gtlds/ and http://www.icmregistry.com/about/policies/domain-matching-program/.
By way of example, during the Domain Matching Program if you have the domain name EXAMPLE.XXX, you will be given a priority right to register EXAMPLE.PORN and EXAMPLE.ADULT.
The Domain Matching Program will be available to all .XXX registrants who have a .XXX registration as of March 31, 2015.
Once the Domain Match Program ends, General Availability for .PORN and .ADULT will begin on June 4th 2015.
The Domain Matching Program is very similar to the original “grandfathering plan” that ICM tried to bring to market, with a few key changes. The changes are a result of ICANN’s decision that the original “grandfathering plan” was in contravention of ICANN’s Rights Protection Mechanisms. At the time ICM applied for its new gTLDs ICANN had not yet finalized their rules; ICANN’s final Rights Protection Mechanisms were published long after the new gTLD application window closed. As a result, ICANN’s final Rights Protection Mechanisms do not allow some of ICM’s original ideas. These final ICANN rules affected not only ICM, but also affected all other new gTLD applicants including entities like VeriSign, Inc. which runs and operates .com.
Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM commented, “We are delighted at long last to be able to provide firm dates for the launch of our exciting new gTLDs. Whilst we are disappointed that ICANN didn’t allow our original Grandfathering Plan, we believe the new Domain Matching Program means that 98%-99% of our underlying .XXX
Domain registrants and Sunrise B participants will be given the chance to register the directly matching .PORN and/or .ADULT name, should they so wish.”
He went on to add, “ICM was not the only applicant affected by ICANN’s “trademark first” policies, even VeriSign who run .com were denied permission to introduce their transliteration of internationalized versions of .com, which was a program along the same lines that ICM had planned for in .PORN and .ADULT.”
Steve Winyard, Vice President of ICM went on to say, “ICANN’s mandated rules added a further layer of complexity and procedure to what we had intended but the new Domain Matching Program will serve as an adequate substitute for the vast majority of registrants to help them secure matching names in our new TLDs. The allocation of premium names in .PORN and .ADULT has also been somewhat affected by the non negotiable ICANN rules. Any .XXX Premium Name holder who is wondering how ICANN’s rules affect them should contact me directly. We remain committed to delivering our premium names to companies in the adult entertainment space that have good plans to develop them, as many have done in .XXX.”
Steve went on to say, “The launch of our new TLD’s in 2015 will bring a plethora of exciting opportunities for web masters and brand creators and we are confident that these new TLDs will bring favorable results in search engine rankings as well as creating additional revenue for their owners.”
Multiple parties, including the current owner of Sex.com, initially applied for .SEX. ICM has recently acquired the .SEX TLD through private negotiation. ICM anticipates the launch of .SEX in Q3 2015.
uhg. Just too many extensions coming out.
Not certain if one domain would be worthas much if didnt have the accompanying variations or not.
I can see Categories.xxx and value perhaps for .porn and .sex but not so strong for .adult.
It’s beginning to be ridiculous in terms of ROI, Risk vs Reward, and the obvious Supply and Demand.
When the dust settles, there is just an overwhelming amount of domains with extensions possibilities than there are people in the world.
I see no mention of cost, which is very worrisome.
In the past, the ICM Registry has repeatedly promised that .ADULT, .PORN, and .SEX would be free to register for owners of .XXX domains.
@Stuart Lawley, please answer this Yes / No question:
Does this “priority right to register” matching .ADULT and .PORN,domains extend to 100% of .XXX domain registrants free of additional future charges?
The word “free” is conspicuously absent from what I’ve seen today. A large number of .XXX domains have renewal dates approaching at the end of 2014. I’m sure registrants would like to know if the ICM Registry is, in fact, honoring its promises or whether they can expect their (approximately) $100 renewal fee per .XXX domain to triple once it includes registrations in the other 2 TLDs … and quadruple once .SEX is awarded to the ICM Registry.
Honestly, I can’t tell whether the ICM Registry intends to charge registrants of .XXX domains for .ADULT and .PORN add-ons. In the past, I have defended the ICM Registry’s advertised policy as a model of registry responsibility. So I’m hopeful that I didn’t waste my breath.
I fully agree with your post. I own a few .XXX domains and I intend to acquire others only because of the promises the Registry has made in the past about grandfathering the .PORN, .ADULT and SEX counterparts to interested .XXX owners FOR FREE. Now I need a clear answer from the Registry to the question you already posted.
@Michael
What about an interview to Mr. Lawley on the matter?
the .porn and .adult domains will NOT be free.
Owning the matching .xxx one allows you access to the .porn .adult and eventually the .sex matching domain ahead of everyone but the trademark holder.
They never said its would be free.
I asked about the pricing with a Rep of ICM yesterday who I asked to clarify the issue who said
“We haven’t concluded the price but it will be no more than .XXX. and yes, the existing .XXX domain holder can chose to register both, either or none””
I was sure the domains would be granted for free, my bad. Anyway, since I’m basically interested in .SEX, will the deadline to claim corresponding .PORN and .ADULT names (March 2015) be applied to .SEX as well?
This is a quote from one of the ICM Registry’s earlier press releases:
“ICM Registry has invested just under two million dollars in these applications to support our existing customers,” said Lawley. “By offering the grandfathering clause at no charge, we are demonstrating our commitment to our adult entertainment community and will not collect fees for this from anyone who already has purchased a .XXX domain by the appropriate cut-off date.”
Mike, I direct your attention to the phrases “at no charge” and “not collect fees … from anyone who already has purchases a .XXX domain”.
That reads like a contradiction to me. I’m still undecided about whether it’s a double cross.
.Sex was in contension the other two ICM was the only applicant so I’m assuming based on that and the announcement, .Sex will be out later after porn and adult
@ Joseph and @ Joe.
Sorry for the delay in responding, I was out of pocket for a few days.
Michael has it correct. Our original grandfathering plan was to release
the new extensions with priority registration for the underlying matching
.XXX owner who could at that point register the new names (and of course
pay the registration fee for those new names) or decide to do nothing
with those names and the matching .PORN names would effectively sit on the
shelf, reserved at no cost for that .XXX registrant should he wish to
register at a later date.
This is exactly what Versign had planned for their IDN .com equivalents,
but which isn¹t something they are currently able to offer either.
Unfortunately, post submission of our application, ICANN amended and
documented detailed rules about Sunrise and launch processes which
contained restrictions and prohibitions on “earmarking” names. These new
rules applied to all new gTLDs, including us and Verisign as well.
We submitted our Launch Plan for approval to ICANN but approval wasn’t
given, citing the ICANN mandated launch rules and also citing security and
stability concerns.
We also learned that registrars were not able to implement the “reserve
now, register later” plan and so we are unable to offer our original
grandfathering plan both from ICANN¹s policy perspective and from a
registrar implementation perspective.
We have therefore amended our launch plans to comply exactly with those
permitted by ICANN and that includes an exclusive 30 day period April
15-May 15, post Sunrise, but pre-General Availablity that allows .XXX
holders of record as of 31st March 2015 to participate in our Limited
Registration period, which we refer to as our Domain Matching Program. The
Domain Matching Program will allow .XXX stakeholders to register any
available directly matching second level name in .PORN or .ADULT, before
those names are offered to the general public.
To be clear, anyone wishing to register in this period will pay the
regular registration fee charged by their Registrar (we don’t set
Registrar pricing) and any names not registered during this period will be
made available for general registration on the 4th of June 2015 as part of
General Availability.
As Michael also pointed out the launch of .SEX is delayed a few months as
a result of the contention negotiations with the other applicant and is
expected to launch in the fall of 2015 but those dates and the details of
that launch haven¹t as yet been finalized.
I hope these answers help.
ICANN’s Rules did not allow us to launch as previously hoped but, in our
opinion, the Domain Matching Program gives the closest approximation
whilst complying to the letter with the ICANN mandated processes.
Stuart Lawley
Thanks, Mr. Lawley, for taking the time to respond.
ICANN regulations are a topic I and most registrants don’t follow closely. But I’d be hard pressed to imagine a .XXX registrant who won’t be angered by this 180 degree turn.
For going on 3 years now, .XXX registrants have been renewing their domains — mostly at an annual cost near $100 apiece — with the expectation (due entirely to repeated press releases on the part of the ICM registry) that matching .ADULT and .PORN domains would (1) not devalue their investments in .XXX and (2) not compel them to pay for additional brand protection with .ADULT and .PORN.
Perhaps the ICM Registry can shift the blame to ICANN. But what chiefly matters to .XXX registrants is that they appear to have been duped. After loyally paying (let us say) $100 x 3 years = $300 per domain, the registrant may now be forced to pay an additional $100 x 2 domains = $200 in a do-or-die month early in 2015 or else risk seeing the brand protection they’d already paid for completely undermined by other ICM Registry TLDs.
Whether the matching .ADULT and .PORN are registered by others or not registered at all, they will now compete against the ICM Registry’s most loyal customers by devaluing their assets and/or tripling or quadrupling their holding costs going forward.
To me the consequences of this (perhaps accidental) 180-degree turn seem outrageous and extortionate.
But the ICM Registry can choose to honor the principle of its earlier promises, even if ICANN has contravened the letter of the original grandfathering plan as it was advertised to consumers. After all, renewal and purchase decisions over the past 2 years (soon to be 3) were based on a heavily touted promise that now the ICM Registry won’t be fulfilling for whatever reason.
Let me focus on one sentence:
“To be clear, anyone wishing to register in this period will pay the regular registration fee charged by their Registrar (we don’t set Registrar pricing).”
Actually, that isn’t clear. Yes, registrars set pricing; but they will do so by layering a competitively thin profit margin above the much larger underlying fee set by the ICM Registry. So, Mr. Lawley, any cost borne by consumers on account of .ADULT and .PORN domains matching earlier .XXX domains is almost entirely the responsibility of your company.
If the ICM Registry’s grandfathering plan had been implemented as it was promised to consumers throughout the past few years, how much money would the ICM Registry have expected to make? As I understand things, there were 2 prongs to the promise:
(1) Some .XXX registrants would have elected to “turn off” the matching .ADULT and .PORN domains without registering them for use or resale. In those cases, the ICM Regitry would make no money at all.
This can still be done, I’m sure, with enough creative lawyers put together in a room. After all, we’ve seen other registries — Uniregistry comes to mind — vacuum up their own domains via subsidiary companies. What is to stop the ICM Registry from doing exactly that? By registering matching .ADULT and .PORN domains and keeping them off the market, Mr. Lawley, you can honor your original promise to the .XXX registrants who, believing the PR, have paid your company’s operational costs for the past few years.
(2) Some .XXX registrants might elect to “turn on” the matching .ADULT and .PORN domains for use or resale. In past press releases, the ICM Registry mentioned a “nominal fee”. .XXX’s retail price of $100 was widely remarked as one of the most expensive TLD prices on the market when it was released. So TRIPLE or QUADRUPLE that already high cost (assuming a registrant chooses to activate matching domains in all 4 TLDs) is anything but “nominal”.
ICANN is not forcing the ICM Registry to price these new TLDs so high. What happened to your company’s “nominal fee”?
As I see things, much the same mechanism that the ICM Registry promised can still be implemented, regardless of ICANN technicalities. Anything less than that looks suspiciously like bad faith.
Obviously, everything said in press releases put out by the ICM Registry during the past is very questionoable today; and plenty of people will say that we ought to have seen this coming.
For my part, I have publicly pointed to the ICM Registry’s original plan (along with Nominet’s grandfathering of .UK, which went forward under public pressure) as one of the better examples of a registry safeguarding its customers’ interests. Some .XXX domains I have sold personally were purchased after the buyer reviewed ICM Registry’s past press releases. Buyers believed what they read and saw ICM Registry domains as a safe place to invest.
It boils down to this. For 3 years, the ICM Registry has told consumers that .ADULT and .PORN will either cost them nothing and put them at no risk or else cost them hardly anything while tripling their value. But now exactly the reverse is true. .ADULT and .PORN will place every .XXX registrant at risk unless the registrant suddenly coughs up TRIPLE the amount of money he had anticipated paying. And if he doesn’t pay, then any value his assets had is now greatly reduced.
If the ICM Registry is really going to insist on its customers paying as much as possible, then those customers would be well advised to dump their .XXX domains before renewing them and wash their hands of the ICM Registry altogether. Some universities and non-adult companies that were blackmailed into paying for .XXX years before won’t be happy to go through this again. When they review past ICM Registry press releases, their lawyers won’t go after ICANN.
I’m optimistic that the ICM Registry — with some legalistic creativity — can still roll out much the same plan to protect consumers that it has promised its customers now for since 2012.
Being there at the rights protection framework negotiation table with registries and ICANN, I can mention that ICM Registry tried really hard to convince ICANN into allowing grandfathering, notably ones described in detail at application time for which no comment from TM holders were received during application comment period.
Too bad it failed, but that would only have prevented enabling grandfathering before sunrise. So if TM holders wanted trademark.porn, they would have got it no matter trademark.xxx was registered to someone else. After sunrise, it was ICM discretion what to do, and how to price it. This is not something to blame ICANN for. They mentioned registrars technical capabilities, but it would be possible to keep the names matching XXX domains protected for much longer while enough registrars implemented extensions like Verisign’s Defensive Registrations or what PIR will use for .ngo/.ong technical bundling (which is very similar to what was described in .porn/.adult application). This was simply a business decision, one where the market is more qualified to pass judgement on than me.