from www.domainnamewire.com – Stuart Lawley [pictured] talks about the future of his TLD.

ICM Registry founder Stuart Lawley just got back from a successful ICANN meeting in Brussels. In this Q&A, Lawley answers some common questions about the .xxx top level domain name. He also reveals that the company has received 30,000 pre-reservations for the domain since the news broke last Friday that .xxx is on path for final approval.

DNW: Given the process you still need to complete before launching .xxx, when do you think we’ll be able to register and start using .xxx domains?

Lawley: Q1 2011

DNW: One issue trademark interests have with all new top level domains is feeling like they have to pay for defensive registrations to protect their brands. This could be especially important for .xxx, since most brands don’t want to be associated with adult content. You have a unique way for trademark holders to effectively “block” the registration of their name in .xxx. How will this work?

Lawley: This is laid out in Appendix S of the draft contract but basically, non members of the Sponsored Community will be given the chance during the Launch period to protect their trademarks for a low fee to apply to have their trademarks permanently removed from being registered. We will administer this in conjunction with one of the trademark validation specialist services that have popped up recently and we spoke with a couple of them at the ICANN meeting in Brussels . There will be an appeals process and, of course, our sponsored community members will have priority of non-community members in registering good faith bona fide trademarks

DNW: You’ve accepted pre-registrations for .xxx for some time. How many pre-registrations do you have now, and how many of those were made over the past 12 months? Is it mandatory for those that pre-registered to follow through? In other words, do you think most of these pre-regs will turn into actual registrations?

Lawley: Pre-reservations are voluntary but, subject to our terms and conditions state, pre-reservants will be given priority, so yes we do expect most to follow through. We have, as of Sunday morning 142,626 such names with over 30,000 received since Friday. As you can appreciate this is a moving target and we will update the rapidly growing numbers via our blog.

DNW: Do you anticipate major registrars such as Go Daddy, Network Solutions, and eNom will offer .xxx as an option for their customers?

Lawley: Absolutely! We have spoken with ALL the leading registrars and many of them are forecasting selling hundreds of thousands each. Most registrars we have spoken to seem to indicate that 10-15% of their registrations are “Adult” , so this is one new TLD they are very keen to carry.

DNW: When new TLDs are finally released, do you think you’ll get competition from other adult domains, such as .sex or .porn?

We have always believed that the string .XXX is by far the best new TLD for the adult business. Any such other TLD’s are a VERY long way off and will be subject to challenges and delays as we were. In the new round (if and when it ever happens) there are hurdles and challenge mechanisms, that simply were not present in our round for such things as Morality and Public Order, which is still an unsettled overarching issue, confusingly similarity (.sex and .se anybody?). Any such competing string would be several years down the line by which time we hope to have established .xxx as the de-facto online location for adult entertainment .

DNW: Anything else you want to discuss?

Lawley: As a sponsored TLD we have plans, that we will announce over the coming months, that will provide, in our opinion, HUGE benefits for our sponsored community in terms of reduced payment processing rates, vastly reduced chargeback issues. In addition we will embark on a worldwide marketing campaign to educate the general population on the benefits .xxx brings. We expect registrants to enjoy greater traffic and more profitable and predictable recurring revenue streams. This will lead to .XXX being the preferred domain of choice for the adult industry once they see these benefits converting into hard dollars.