California man registers HuffingtonPost.xxx.
[Update 5 PM CST 12/12/11: That was quick. AOL is now the owner of the domain. Now the only one of the top 20 web sites on the web that may be sexsquatted is WordPress.xxx.]
.XXX domain names opened up for registration last week, but it looks like one big brand may have missed the message.
HuffingtonPost.xxx was registered by a California man shortly after the registry opened for business. I can’t find anything that connects registrant Justin Crews to the online publication.
Of course, Huffington Post writers were aware of .xxx. But someone at corporate (AOL) didn’t think to protect the brand in .xxx. [update: see comments. It may be they thought about it but failed to get it.]
HuffingtonPost.xxx is the highest ranked site in Quantcast so far to have been cybersquatted with a .xxx domain name. I’m going to call it sexsquatting.
Some of the big brands that protected their marks include Google (Google.xxx, YouTube.xxx, BlogSpot.xxx) and Amazon (Amazon.xxx).
Most small businesses need not worry about protecting their brands in .xxx. The high registration price of nearly $80-$100 will make sexsquatting an expensive proposition. But for big brands like HuffPo it’s a different matter.
So, what happens now a UDRP to get the name?
Anything else that can happen?
@ John – They can get it pretty quickly through their processes.
“But someone at corporate (AOL) didn’t think to protect the brand in .xxx.”
Or didn’t like the idea of paying “protection money”. In other industries that is considering a shakedown.
I have seen many newbs post obvious TM issue domains from Quiznos.xxx, Toys-R-Us.xxx, ChristianPost.xxx and many others.
This extension is disaster in the marking.
Brad
When you look into alexa, people are looking for facebook.xxx and google.xxx.what they expect their sexy facebook and google? 🙂
A couple typo corrections –
“In other industries that is considered a shakedown”
“This extension is a disaster in the making”
Brad
Looks like AOL was able to secure many of their TM’d brands – icm.xxx/whois. They blocked huffpost.xxx and thehuffingtonpost.xxx. The issue here appears to be that the registered TM is “The Huffington Post” so it could not be used for the shorter huffingtonpost.xxx during Sunrise.
I am sure AOL tried to get it during open registration just so they didn’t have to deal with a nitwit like Justin Crews and I am sure Justin Crews has a letter from an attorney sitting in his inbox.
Completely stupid, not just from perspective of infringing upon trademark (do people forget they can be sued for up to $100k in damages?) but what is the point of getting that? Hoping they’ll buy it from him?
Looks like AOL was able to secure many of their TM’d brands. They blocked huffpost.xxx and thehuffingtonpost.xxx. The issue here appears to be that the registered TM is “The Huffington Post” so it could not be used for the shorter huffingtonpost.xxx during Sunrise.
I am sure AOL tried to get it during open registration just so they didn’t have to deal with a nitwit like Justin Crews and I am sure Justin Crews has a letter from an attorney sitting in his inbox.
Andrew, you might want to change your assumption “But someone at corporate (AOL) didn’t think to protect the brand in .xxx.”
Obviously not the case.
People are shameful. They just waste money and ruin the reputation of an entire industry.
Nothing a RES can fix 🙂
I like your “sexsquatting” term as a substitute for .xxx cybersquatting; however, I do think “cybersexing” or better yet “cyberseXXXing” both have a nicer ring to them!
🙂
*
Let the litigation begin!
It’s going to get nasty, especially the “shakedown” and squatting aspects.
If someone squats on a .net or .tel, the trademark holder is less likely to get totally bent out of shape and may be willing to use the UDRP process, BUT with .xxx, they will most likely sue the squatter and take everything he or she owns–make an example out of squatters.
No self-respecting business wants to have its TM associated with porn and will do what it takes to protect it. I think a lot of people are turned off by the “shakedown” overtones and may even prefer going to court.
I expect that the .xxx registry will find itself in the courtroom.
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Registrant:
AOL Inc.
22000 AOL Way
Dulles, Virginia 20166
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: HUFFINGTONPOST.XXX
Created on: 10-Dec-11
Expires on: 10-Dec-12
Last Updated on: 12-Dec-11
On its website, ICM Registry says it uses the Rapid Evaluation Service (RES)to resolve trademark issues. Plus, there is something called the Charter Eligibility Dispute Resolution Policy they have instituted. And there is always the ICAAN dispute resolution process. Will quickly become a negative cost-benefit enterprise for any squatter.
Update: As JM points out, the domain name has been transferred to AOL/Huffington Post now.
All’s well that ends well! 🙂
Although this has been resolved since then, I’m honestly rather surprised to see (some?) people actually visit HuffingtonPost.xxx rather than HuffingtonPost.com. Unless they were expecting (finally?) sex stories on Huffington?
i’ve followed their domain practices as well as other large media companies and they’re solid compared to most companies. udrpsearch shows this as well as their typo management. kudos to aol and a notice to other brand owners.
IMHO, not worth the time and money to try and protect your brand over every new extension. Huff doesn’t stand to lose much traffic or if any at all.
AOL’s Huffington Post generates more traffic than they know they know what to do with, especially since their news site represents the hub that promotes most of the smaller sites with page links.