ICANN's red light top level domain, .XXX, has been available for sale for only a short period of time, but based on anecdotal reports it is clear that a significant number of non-adult entertainment companies are snapping up the domain name to preserve their brand.

Several universities have spent thousands of dollars acquiring .XXX domain names related to their own names. (via PC Magazine).  Small businesses, less able to shoulder such costs, are as well (via the E-Commerce Times).

One organization, Morality in Media, is asking Congress to step in, by requiring purchasers of an .XXX domain to first get the permission of whoever might hold the same name in other established domains.

Gearing Up for a Bigger Fight

Erik Pelton of Erik M. Pelton & Associates told the E-Commerce Times that Congress was unlikely to act on the .XXX domain name issue specifically, because it is prepping for a bigger fight–namely, "ICANN's planned rollout in 2012 of new global top level domain names that can take any form, such as '.brand.'"

Announced in June, the TLD plan has been controversial in the online ad industry from the start. It would allow companies to create website addresses ending in their own names — that is, replacing the .com with, say, an Apple.com, or a place, such as Vegas.com. The fees involved are huge, however, and there there is bound to be much dispute over which firm or entity is entitled to a seemingly generic name, such as Apple or Giant or Money or Food.

Hearing Scheduled for This Week

The U.S. House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will hold a full hearing on ICANN’s top level domain expansion program on Wednesday, December 14. This hearing follows last Thursday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing in which the Association of National Advertisers expressed the serious drawbacks to ICANN's plan.

This hearing will also examine the implications of this new program, which is currently set to begin in January 2012.