From 6 Decem­ber 2011 any indi­vid­ual, com­pa­ny or organ­i­sa­tion is per­mit­ted to apply for a new .XXX (or triple X) domain name. Now that the sun­rise peri­od has end­ed, eli­gi­bil­i­ty will be deter­mined on a first come, first served basis.

.XXX domain names were approved by the Inter­na­tion­al Cor­po­ra­tion for Assigned Names and Num­bers (ICANN) ear­li­er this year and are designed for the adult enter­tain­ment indus­try. Web­sites with .xxx address­es will focus exclu­sive­ly on adult enter­tain­ment con­tent, and appli­cants will need to cer­ti­fy that they belong to that industry.

How­ev­er brand own­ers who are not mem­bers of the adult enter­tain­ment indus­try are able to apply to block a .XXX domain to ensure that their brand names and valu­able intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty are not reg­is­tered as .xxx domain names. In this way, the sys­tem will ensure that valu­able brands are not hijacked, and not sub­ject to poten­tial­ly sig­nif­i­cant brand dam­age by being asso­ci­at­ed with adult con­tent that may con­flict with the brand’s values.

If your busi­ness is con­cerned that a third par­ty .XXX domain reg­is­tra­tion using your brand name may dam­age your busi­ness­es rep­u­ta­tion or imply an affil­i­a­tion or asso­ci­a­tion that does not exist, you may wish to apply to block that name from being part of a .xxx domain name.

These new .XXX domain reg­is­tra­tions are sub­ject to exist­ing rights pro­tec­tion mech­a­nisms, includ­ing the Uni­form Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Pol­i­cy, but it may be more cost effec­tive for your busi­ness to pre-emp­tive­ly block a .XXX domain name that con­tains your brand name.

If your busi­ness would like to under­stand more about .XXX domain name reg­is­tra­tions, please con­tact Swaab Attorneys.

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

Copy­right and Gen­er­a­tive AI: what Aus­tralia can learn from the Meta and Anthrop­ic Rulings

In 2025, two U.S. court deci­sions, Kadrey v. Meta and Bartz v. Anthrop­ic, have pro­vid­ed the first real judi­cial answers…

Fed­er­al Court Deci­sion Lim­its Effec­tive Use of Set-Off in Con­trac­tu­al Annu­al Salary Arrangements

The Deci­sionIn a recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion*, Jus­tice Per­ram held that while con­trac­tu­al set-off claus­es in an annu­al salary arrange­ment can…

Pro­tect­ing your tomor­row, today: The impor­tance of an endur­ing pow­er of attorney

We often talk about the impor­tance of draft­ing your estate plan­ning doc­u­ments, includ­ing how draft­ing your will can ensure your…

In the News

Sarah Heuv­el pro­vides insight into get­ting Rent Roll Trans­ac­tions Com­pli­ance Compliant

Sarah Heuv­el in an inter­view with Matthew Cial­lel­la of MC Broking & Advi­so­ry, dis­cuss rent roll trans­ac­tions and the three key…

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Evan Lucas on 2GB on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the recent Fed­er­al Court deci­sion relat­ing to salary arrange­ments, set-off claus­es and award compliance

Michael Byrnes appeared on Mon­ey News with Evan Lucas on 2GB on 8 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to dis­cuss the recent Fed­er­al Court…

Michael Byrnes has pub­lished an arti­cle titled Use of AI Crit­i­cised by FWC” in HR Leader on 2 Sep­tem­ber 2025.

Michael Byrnes has pub­lished an arti­cle titled ​“Use of AI Crit­i­cised by FWC” in HR Leader on 2 Sep­tem­ber 2025.To read the…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information