AKRON, Ohio — “Fear the Roo,” the University of Akron slogan tied to its marsupial mascot, could take on a totally different meaning if it became fair game for an X-rated website.
That’s why the university has moved to block the slogan’s use on the new .xxx online domain for adult entertainment and pornography. Other Ohio universities are taking similar steps to protect their brands.
Ohio State University is seeking to register a number of trademarks in addition to its name — including mascot Brutus, Buckeyes, The Shoe and Scarlet and Gray. Oberlin College wants to protect Oberlin. And Kent State University, for obvious reasons, has filed to register its athletic teams’ name – the Golden Flashes.
The .xxx domain will join .edu, .com, .gov and other suffixes that are part of online domain names and addresses.
ICM Registry, after 10 years of trying, received approval this year for the controversial domain from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that administers Internet addresses.
The public can purchase .xxx domain names beginning Dec. 6.
ICM, located in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., already has banned the names of thousands of famous people and blocked 15,000 other names at the request of governments and agencies.
Businesses, universities and organizations not affiliated with adult entertainment had until Oct. 31 to purchase a .xxx domain name for their official registered trademarks through a registrar company, such as GoDaddy.com. Those names will be unavailable on ICM’s .xxx registry when it opens in December. ICM reported that more than 80,000 applications were received to secure a domain so it could be used or blocked.
It was recommended that a trademark be registered if it is well-known, is highly visible in online searches or has a denotation that would make it desirable as an .xxx domain. It costs a few hundred dollars to file.
“I think everybody would associate that (a .xxx domain) with something related to pornography and you would just as soon not have that out there for an institution,” said Rick Van Brimmer , director of trademark and licensing at Ohio State.
While Oberlin is a trademark and the college’s application to shield that address is under review, the application to protect OberlinCollege.xxx was denied since it is not an official trademark, said spokesman Scott Wargo.
“It is obvious that you want to protect your image and brand name,” he said.
Kent State has applied for four domains, kentstateuniversity.xxx, kent.xxx, flashes.xxx and goldenflashes.xxx.
via Universities move to block their names from new .xxx online domain | cleveland.com.
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