"Sex.sex" trademark reg'd in prep for .sex TLD?

[Maxwell]

I came across this on eBay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/sex-sex-trademar...#ht_500wt_1182

For a starting bid of USD $3,000 the claim is that you will own the trademark to the term "sex.sex" and therefore can make a trademark claim on the sex.sex domain name, thereby entitling you to ownership of the name, and in turn, allowing you to profit off of it.

This seems like a bit of a long shot, IMO. While .sex may become a TLD (I think .xxx will do better), wouldn't claiming rights to the name ensue a massive legal battle, should ICANN become combative?

That said, just how well might sex.sex do? The TLD (like any other TLD) will never carry the same blue-chip cachet of .com... but the keyword reinforced by a matching tld seems like it would do better than sex.tel, sex.me, sex.mobi, etc.

What are your thoughts on this concept?

[tradingnames.org]

I have looked into this sort of thing recently and from what I read a trademark can’t be bought it has to be earned, perhaps I am wrong, but it sounds like a potentially big legal battle and could end up costing you a lot more than $3000, maybe with nothing to show for your money at the end. What do you folks think?

[Acro]

Read this post at my blog.

[Maxwell]

The guy went down to USD $1,500. Still no bids.

WRT your blog post, Acro... do you think that by creating "good will", it would strengthen the trademark holder's right to claim the domain?

By this, I mean using the exact phrase "sex.sex" in such a way that it is vital to your brand and therefore making your not owning the domain detrimental.

[Acro]

The problem is that selling a trademark requires a contract detailing the use and ensuring that the buyer understands what they will have to do to take control of it. In other words, selling a tm on eBay isn't the same like selling a domain.

[tradingnames.org]

I still think the key word here is earned, that good will still has to be earned, what has the guy selling this TM done to earn it? Not much I bet, sounds like a bit of a scam to me.

[Acro]

I hate to say it but it seems that he created an opportunity product with no real use in commerce (in other words, he doesn't really sell any products under this brand).

Web site at sexdotsex.net pretty much advertises the holding of the trademark.

[Diabro]

Also if a person TM'd SEX.SEX to sell porn that does not mean I could not use the name SEX.SEX to sell chicken. You do not own the term.

Like I could open a company called Apple that sold Apple's and did not infringe on Apple the computer maker.