Rules for AdultBlock and AdultBlock+ a bit more flexible now

Last year we reported that Minds & Machines, the registry for .xxx, .adult,… introduced the AdultBlock and AdultBlock+.

The AdultBlock and AdultBlock+ offer you the possibility to protect your name under .xxx, .porn, .adult and .sex and thus avoid unpleasant surprises. However, you did have to meet a number of conditions to activate an AdultBlock or AdultBlock+ for your name. These rules are now somewhat relaxed by the registry.

From now on the following people can activate an AdultBlock or AdultBlock+ for their name:

• owners of a registered trademark (whether or not registered with the TradeMark ClearingHouse)
• owners of an unregistered brand name
• owners of a sunriseB .xxx name
• celebrities
• politicians

Let’s rewind to 2011, the release of .xxx. With this release, registered trademark owners were given the opportunity to protect their domain name under .xxx during the so-called sunriseB. All names requested during that sunriseB were blocked for a period of 10 years under .xxx. The name was therefore no longer available for registration but also did not lead to an active website.

As the number of extensions related to the adult entertainment industry is more extensive than in 2011 and as the sunriseB registrations will end in 2021 and cannot be renewed, the AdultBlock and the AdultBlock+ were introduced.

What is the difference? The AdultBlock offers the owner of a registered trademark or a sunriseB .xxx name the possibility to protect this name under .xxx, .adult, porn, and .sex.
The AdultBlock+ goes a few steps further. It allows the owner of a registered trademark or sunriseB .xxx name to protect this name and all variations of this trademark under .xxx, .adult, porn, and .sex.

Just to be clear: sunriseB .xxx names are still protected until 2021. If the owner of a sunriseB .xxx name activates the AdultBlock before 2021, this can be done without having to register with the TMCH (if the customer does not have a TMCH registration yet, this will save the costs of such a registration). And the block will not only be for .xxx, but will also suddenly be extended to .adult, .porn and .sex (unless the name was previously registered by someone under one of those TLDs).

As mentioned, the AdultBlock+ goes even further. This offers owners of a registered trademark or sunriseB .xxx name in addition to the option to protect their name under xxx, .adult, .porn and .sex. also the possibility to protect all kinds of variations of this name under these 4 extensions. The variations must meet strict conditions. For example, you would also get bânk, bänk, bànk,… for “bank”. Letters that resemble letters in our script in another script (Cyrilic, Greek,…) are also protected.

If you wish to activate the AdultBlock or AdultBlock+ for (one of) your brand name, this is possible for a period of 1, 3, 5 or 10 years.