If you’ve been on a webhosting or domain registration site recently, you’ve probably seen ads for the new domain suffix .xxx.

ICANN’s intentions in creating this domain were clearly good. With a separate domain name for the pornography industry, kids are less likely to stumble across these sites and it will make life easier for monitoring software and in turn, parents.

It should be noted that most registrars charge around $10 for a .com domain, whereas .xxx usually costs over $90. The porn industry is quite a money maker after all.

Here’s the catch: They’re not the ones buying many of these domain names. Marvel, Disney, Target and Pepsi have all reserved them, as well as numerous universities.  Don’t worry, Disney doesn’t have any plans to expand their cinematic repertoire. All of these companies, along with many others, are just worried about protecting their brand image from being associated with pornography. This “defensive registration” was given a special period of 52 days before .xxx domains were available for sale to the public.

Companies who didn’t secure their trademarks then may have missed their chance. A number of entrepreneurial individuals have registered domain names like huffingtonpost.xxx and NBCnews.xxx thinking that someday these companies may be willing to shell out to get their names safely off the market. Either that or someone may actually want to buy the .xxx domains for their intended purpose in which case the original domain owners could still make a hefty profit.

This could get complicated when the cybersquatting litigation begins. Cybersquatting is when you use a domain name with the intent to profit from the reputation of someone else’s trademark. That includes selling it back to the trademark owner at high prices.

Part of the process when you register a domain name is agreeing to arbitration through ICANN and the arbitration organizations they’ve authorized.

And to them all I have to say is: Good luck. You’ll need it.