Imagine a diplomatic war between two countries, all because of a domain gTLD.
That’s what it looks like for dot .Tata, an application for a new gTLD, made by Indian automotive company Tata.
There is nothing wrong with a company wanting to set their own footprint on the Internet via the registration of a corporate gTLD.
The dot .Tata application, however, received an objection from an African country, over an apparent geographical term, Tata.
A province in Morocco shares the same name and the application was blocked.
The Tata region in Morocco has a population of 15,000 inhabitants (2004 census data), making it a protected geographic name.
Morocco has written a letter to ICANN that it may want the .Tata gTLD name for itself. Meanwhile, Tata Motors owns .TataMotors, quite lengthy but more descriptive.
It might take a sizable investment by Tata Motors within Morocco, to end this blockade, according to The Sunday Standard.