Illinois State University decided to acquire nine .XXX domain names,in order to keep them out of the hands of pornographers .

Mark Walbert,the Chief Technology Officer told a radio station in Bloomington that they made this decision in order to avoid someone using the domain names to sell porn .

Up until now Illinois State University only acquired only three .XXX domain names : IllinoisState.XXX , RedBirds.xxx and StateYourPassion.xxx .The University is hoping to register other .XXX domain name when the General Availability begins,on December 6,2011 .

Many other schools and universities are taking similar steps .

An arbitrator with the National Arbitration Forum has awarded Google three Google-related domain names : kilogoogle.com, kilogoogle.net, takeagoogle.com . Google submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum on October 10,2011,asserting legal rights over the disputed domain names.

The company owns many trademark registrations for the “Google” mark.Therefore,it is more than obvious that the disputed domain names are confusingly similar to its trademark.Moreover,Google contended that the respondent registered and used the disputed domain names in bad faith :

“Complainant contends and Respondent admits that Respondent had actual notice of Google’s rights in the disputed domain name due to the mark’s relative fame.  The GOOGLE mark has garnered enough recognition and notoriety so as to make it impossible for Respondent to not be aware of Google’s rights in the mark.  Complainant’s mark is so popular and well known as to give Respondent actual notice of Complainant’s rights in the GOOGLE mark, and therefore supports a finding of bad faith registration .”

The Panel ordered the disputed domain names be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.

You can read the decision here .