Huffington Post Gets Sexsquatted

California man registers HuffingtonPost.xxx.

[Update 5 PM CST 12/12/11: That was quick. AOL is now the owner of the domain. Now the only one of the top 20 web sites on the web that may be sexsquatted is WordPress.xxx.]

.XXX domain names opened up for registration the prior week, but it looks like one big brand may have missed the message.

HuffingtonPost.xxx was registered by a California man shortly following the registry opened for business. I can’t find anything that connects registrant Justin Crews to the online publication.

Of course, Huffington Post writers were aware of .xxx. But someone at corporate (AOL) didn’t think to protect the brand in .xxx. [update: see comments. It may be they thought regarding it but failed to get it.]

HuffingtonPost.xxx is the highest ranked site in Quantcast so far to have been cybersquatted with a .xxx domain name. I’m going to call it sexsquatting.

Some of the big brands that protected their marks include Google (Google.xxx, YouTube.xxx, BlogSpot.xxx) and Amazon (Amazon.xxx).

Most modest businesses need not worry regarding protecting their brands in .xxx. The high registration price of nearly $80-$100 will make sexsquatting an expensive proposition. But for big brands like HuffPo it’s a different matter.