50 percent of Sunrise applications contain errors
BOSTON, Sept. 28, 2011 — EnCirca, Inc., ICANN registrar for .XXX, is issuing this advisory to trademark owners to warn about common errors trademark owners are making with their .XXX Sunrise applications and to assist applicants successfully secure their domain. Sunrise began September 7 and continues until October 28, 2011.
Since the Sunrise period began, EnCirca has collected data on the most common errors that cost trademark owners money because they are paying multiple fees and spending extraneous time reapplying. According to .XXX Registry policy, once a Sunrise application is submitted, it cannot be corrected without paying an additional fee to the registrar. To safeguard clients against this policy, EnCirca is using a pre-validation service to help correct errors before submission and offering refunds for unsuccessful bids. No other registrar is offering this guarantee.
The most common errors are:
Owners are dropping the .com: Many trademarks include a ".com." These letters cannot be dropped from the trademark for .XXX. So, a trademark such as "example.com" is eligible for "examplecom.xxx" but not for "example.xxx."
TIP: File an amendment 7 with the USPTO to have it removed. There is still time to do this before the .XXX Sunrise concludes.
Trademark owners are submitting ineligible trademarks: If you are registering through other registrars, you will pay a fee even though there is no hope of having a successful registration. Use EnCirca if there is any question about the validity of your trademark and take advantage of EnCirca's pre-validation service and don't pay any registration fee if your application is rejected.
Owners are trying to register domains that are not an exact match for their trademark: Oftentimes, a trademark registration will include additional characters than the actual brand name. For example, it may include a slogan or tag line. However, this can be problematic for domain registration as the desired domain names are shorter than their registered trademark.
TIP: There is a fall-back for these trademark owners – apply under Sunrise AD using a pre-existing domain name. The eligibility for joining the sponsored community is very broad and includes any service providers or companies that might supply product or services to either "providers" of adult entertainment or to their "representatives," such as lawyers, agents, advisors and accountants.
EnCirca offers a money-back guarantee for trademark owners applying for the .XXX Sunrise period. EnCirca is so confident in its understanding of the validation requirements that it is guaranteeing that submitted applications will be accepted by the validation agent or EnCirca will offer a full refund of fees paid. Visit http://www.encirca.com/xxx for more information.
About EnCirca
EnCirca was formed in 2001 and is celebrating 10 years as an ICANN Registrar. It was formed by trademark experts and has participated in nearly every ICANN Sunrise period since its formation. It is based just north of Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Media Contact:
Kate Moran
Email
+1.978.290.9325
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