PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – The so-called grandfathering program that promised .xxx domain registrants protection of corresponding names in the .porn, .adult and .sex spaces has been abandoned by registrar ICM Registry five months before two of the new generic Top Level Domains are due to launch. The registrar intends to replace the grandfathering program with a new plan it calls Domain Matching.
As yet, ICM has revealed only that the grandfathering plan was nixed by new rules established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The registry has not explained what terms Domain Matching will encompass.
ICM first mentioned the grandfathering program in April 2012, when it applied for the additional domain extensions. At the time, the registrar guaranteed nervous .xxx registrants—who paid from $60 to $200 per standard .xxx domain at retail—they would pay only “a nominal fee” to acquire matching domains in the other spaces. Registrants who chose not to register corresponding domains in the .adult, .porn and .sex spaces were assured the corresponding domains would not be released for registration by someone else.
ICM has not revealed which parts of the guarantee will change under the new program or what the changes might be.
“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,” said ICM Vice President Steve Winyard. “The allocation of premium names in .porn and .adult has also been somewhat affected by the non-negotiable ICANN rules.”
For .adult and .porn, the Sunrise registration period—30 days during which trademark holders may secure domains that might infringe upon their trademarks—will begin March 1, 2015. Registrations under the new Domain Matching Program will begin April 15, 2015, and end May 15, 2015. The general availability period—during which any remaining domains may be registered by anyone—is expected to being June 4, 2015.
ICM anticipates .sex will launch during the third quarter of 2015.
“We are delighted at long last to be able to provide firm dates for the launch of our exciting new gTLDs,” ICM Chief Executive Officer Stuart Lawley said. “Whilst we are disappointed that ICANN didn’t allow our original Grandfathering Plan, we believe the new Domain Matching Program means that 98-99 percent 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.
“ICM was not the only applicant affected by ICANN’s ‘trademark first’ policies,” he added. “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.”
Winyard indicated the Domain Matching Program is “very similar” to the original grandfathering plan, “with a few key changes” that resulted from ICANN’s decision that the original plan conflicted with ICANN’s Rights Protection Mechanisms. At the time ICM applied for its new gTLDs, ICANN had not yet finalized its 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, Winyard said.
Neverthless, “The launch of our new TLD’s in 2015 will bring a plethora of exciting opportunities for webmasters 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,” he said.
ICM representatives were not available to for comment before posting time.
