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.WTF? Governments object to .sucks, .army and .airforce

ICANN releases lists of government objections to new gTLDs

The world's governments have had their say about new generic top level domains (gTLDs), lodging more than 200 objections laid to proposed new names.

Australia, oddly, leads the list of complainants, racking up more than 100 with objections to .sucks and .wtf (on grounds that the name has “has an overtly negative or critical connotation” and that applicants don't have the processes in place to deal with “defensive registrations”).

The antipodean nation also objects to Symantec's bid for .antivirus, saying it “is seeking exclusive access to a common generic string that relates to a broad market sector.”

Australia also hands out a beating to Amazon.com, objecting to applications for generic terms such as .app, .book, .cloud, .store and more, in multiple languages.

Amazon also generated an objection from Peru and Brazil, which together point out that Amazon.com's attempt to own .amazon “would prevent the use of this domain for purposes of public interest related to the protection, promotion and awareness raising on issues related to the Amazon biome” and would also be a problem for the many nations in the Amazon basin and the work of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization.

In a similar vein, Argentina objects to clothing company Patagonia's request for .patagonia, a region that is lies within Argentine borders.

The USA objects to the .army, .airforce and .navy domains because “The string is confusingly similar to the name of a specific government agency”. India also found fault with those three, warning of national security implications if an entity could use such domain names and pointing out that in India the names are protected by law.

India also opposes the creation of .halal, arguing that “there are specific restrictions on the certification of food items as 'Halal.' There is no certainty that the applicant will conform to rules and regulations regarding this type of food item in India.”

Several African nations and the African Union Commission don't want .africa to be used, because the applicant is not the agreed registrant already appointed to oversee the domain.

The “early warnings” about national objections to gTLDs, as the objections are formally known, don't mean the domains will never be signed off. Further discussions and mediations remain an option for would-be registrants keen to pursue a claim.

The full list of government objections is available here. ®

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