The new .spa gTLD is at the center of an ongoing debate. The enormous popularity of the spa industry has made it an attractive target for two major competitors, Donuts and the Asia Spa and Wellness Promotion Council (ASWPC). Complicating matters is the etymology of the word ‘spa’: while a widely accepted theory holds that it is an acronym of the Latin ‘sanitas per aquam’ or ‘health through water’, a different theory traces its roots to the Belgian city of Spa, famous for its mineral springs. Whatever the true origin, the domain cannot be registered without the consent of Spa’s authorities.
Belgian officials seem to favor cooperation with ASWPC. In a letter to the ICANN, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Johan Vande Lanotte said that negotiations between the stakeholders had concluded and he requested that the ICANN delegate the new .spa gTLD to the candidate who has a formal agreement with the local authorities of Spa. That candidate is the ASWPC, which earlier promised to pay up to 25% of its European profits from using the domain to the city’s budget. Accordingly, Donuts’ application should be denied.
Donuts, however, does not intend to give up without a fight. The company plans to prove that ‘spa’ is now a generic word and so cannot be confined to a geographic location.
