Domain Incite has announced the final decision on the fate of the new gTLD .THAI. As expected, the domain will not be delegated. The application for .THAI was filed by the Thai company Better Living Management back in 2012. However, soon after the Thai government opposed it, arguing that .THAI could be perceived as an official domain name related to Thailand as a whole.
The ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee supported this objection and unanimously opposed the domain delegation in November 2013. Better Living Management filed an Independent Review Process complaint, referring to non-compliance with various formalities; however, the appeal had no success. Since then, the fate of .THAI has remained in limbo for many years. Analysts expressed confidence that it would not be delegated. Among the main reasons was the fact that the Thai ccTLD registry, the Thai Network Information Center Foundation, had already launched an internationalized domain, .ไทย, which means “Thai” in Thai.
Finally, Better Living Management also realized the futility of their efforts and withdrew the application. However, the company will receive back most of the registration fee paid upon application.
