Worried about someone else getting your trademark in the new .xxx extension? You have under 4 weeks left to prevent it.

Ending on October 28, the Sunrise period is the ICM registry’s designated time period for you to block registration of a domain matching your trademark. You can submit an application through one of many accredited registrars offering .xxx domains. The application costs about $200 and blocks the domain from registration for a term of 10 years, placing the registry’s information on the whois during that time. Approval of these applications depends upon whether there are any other applicants and the cost is non-refundable.

ICM gives precedence to Sunrise A applicants, adult businesses in commerce applying to reserve registration of their trademark. This means that Sunrise B applicants, non-adult businesses applying to block registration of their trademark, would lose out to a competing Sunrise A applicant. Since all applications are processed simultaneously (no “first come, first served”), there is no advantage to getting your application in quicker to avoid this.

That said, all applicants of a particular domain are notified of all other applicants once applications are processed. If a Sunrise A applicant proceeds with reserving and then registering the domain with your trademark, you may still dispute the domain later such as through a lawsuit in court. In such a dispute, the Sunrise A applicant would be unable to claim they were not aware of your intellectual property claims pertaining to the domain.

Many businesses and other trademark holders are up in arms about this policy and about .xxx in general. However, it is unlikely that the extension or the trademark policy will be overturned anytime soon. You must at least be cognizant of .xxx and potential dangers, whether or not you choose to block registration of any domains in case someone tries to damage your brand.