.patagonia
| Status: | Proposed |
| Type: | Brand TLD |
.patagonia is a Brand TLD being proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is sportswear company Patagonia, Inc.[1]
Objection
In June 2012 at ICANN Prague, Argentina's GAC representative told the ICANN Board that it was against .patagonia as a closed brand TLD, as Patagonia is also the name of a region in South America comprising the southern parts of Argentina and Chile. The statement was followed by a letter on August 3 from Ambassador Alfredo Morelli of Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ICANN's leadership stating the same. According to the Applicant Guidebook, geographic regions listed in ISO 3166 cannot be applied for except as a geoTLD, however the region of Patagonia does not appear under any of the ISO 3166 lists.[2]
The application went on to receive over 1,500 comments during the public comment period. At one point, NIC Argentina offered giveaways to its Twitter followers for commenting and objecting to the application.[3]
The application was subject to two GAC Early Warnings from the representatives of Chile and Argentina; the warning system is noted as a strong recommendation on behalf of national governments to the ICANN Board that a given TLD application should be denied. The Argentinean warning notes that Patagonia is a region of Argentina and that the application has no support from national or regional governments.[4]