Don't Let Your Company's Name End Up as a Dirty Domain

In 1736, Ben Franklin advised Philadelphians that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” when it comes to preventing a fire in the crowded city. Little did the Founding Father know that his saying would one day apply to small businesses and the porn industry.

Starting Oct. 29, a business that fails to protect its Web address could find it with a .XXX at the end, tossing a company’s name into the salacious world of adult entertainment. To see an example of how this might turn out, consider the case of www.whitehouse.com. Rather than giving you information on the President’s digs (that's available on on www.whitehouse.gov), the former provides information on personal injury lawyers.

Worse yet, under earlier ownership whitehouse.com was actually a porn site!

To keep a domain-squatting porn site from damaging your company's good name, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit that oversees the administration of Web addresses, will give companies the period between Sept. 7 and Oct. 28 to prevent their Web addresses from being placed in the .XXX domain.

Companies only need to notify their existing registrars, which then will block the Web address from being used in this manner. There is a one-time charge for the service, ranging from $200 to $300.

The .XXX domain becomes generally available Dec. 6. After that time, battling a porn company over a Web address will cost a minimum of $2,000, with the price rising considerably if it turns into a legal war, said Doug McDonald, an intellectual property lawyer with the Tampa, Fla.-based firm Carlton Fields.

While chances of having a Web address hijacked may seem remote, McDonald expects some businesses in adult entertainment to try to take advantage of the name recognition built up by other companies. “They’ll try to get a free ride,” he said. Typically, smaller businesses are easier targets than corporations with an army of lawyers. “You don’t pick on the big guys,” McDonald explained.

ICANN gave its approval to .XXX, called a top-level domain, in March 2011. The action will create a red-light district on the Internet that proponents hope will make it easier for families or organizations to prevent access to adult-oriented websites. However, it's unlikely adult entertainment companies will dump their current .com addresses. Instead, they’re likely to add the new TLD to their existing collection of online properties.

While some small businesses may bristle at spending hard-earned dollars to protect their Web addresses, McDonald said the money will be well-spent. “You’ll never have a cheaper opportunity,” he said. “There are very few things that I discuss with people that’s related to any legal matters that cost $200 to $300.”