ICM President Stuart Lawley on Saturday told XBIZ that the registry is hopeful that a reconsideration request to ICANN and a lawsuit targeting two U.S. government agencies will help its mission to govern .XXX.
“We have invested a lot of time and effort into this initiative and are determined to see it through to completion,” he said. “We are hopeful, but of course cannot guarantee, that these efforts will prove successful.”
ICM plans on offering “industry members the opportunity to submit reservation requests free of charge,” Lawley said.
” We are introducing this industry reservation period now for multiple reasons, including to dispel some of the uninformed speculation emanating from certain quarters about how names were to be allocated to industry participants and to ensure we use our resources fully whilst we are in the appeals process with ICANN,” he said.
Lawley said reservations for .XXX domains can be made after 7 A.M. (PST) Monday on its site.
“This gives the members of the online adult entertainment industry a no-cost, no-risk, no-obligation method of applying to secure the rights to their existing domains in .XXX,” he said. “We would urge all members of the community who ultimately wish to register in .XXX, to apply now to reserve the names they want. We are expecting a very large take up of reservations.”
Earlier this month, ICANN’s board, 9-5, rejected ICM’s bid out of “public policy concerns.”
Shortly after, ICM filed a federal lawsuit against the Commerce Department and State Department to release requested documents that are “vital” to influencing ICANN board members.
The company, based in both Jupiter, Fla., and Toronto, began its bid for the adults-only sponsored top-level domain six years ago.
ICM pledges to donate $10 of the proposed annual fee of $60 for a .XXX domain name to child-protection groups and to require users of .XXX to label their content.