Pending .kosher domain disputed by rival certification authorities

This week, ICANN is meeting in Durban, South Africa, to discuss, among other things, the expansion of new global top-level domain (TLD) names.

Among the names in question is .kosher, which opens a small window into the potential problems that can arise with allowing meaningful words to be domain suffixes. A group calling itself Kosher Marketing Assets LLC had been the sole applicant for the TLD, and in its application it aims to “promote awareness of the TLD through press releases and direct communications with customers of OK Kosher Certification.”

But now, according to a new report by Bloomberg, five rival kosher certifying organizations and companies have banded together to halt Kosher Market Assets LLC and its parent company OK Kosher.

“We think that if the term ‘kosher,’ which has important meaning in the Jewish religion, is commercialized, it will do a disservice to how religion in general should be treated and will harm the kosher public specifically,” Harvey Blitz, the Kashruth Commission chairman of the rival Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, told Bloomberg.

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America oversees OU Kosher, a larger competitor to OK Kosher. The five opposing groups have informed ICANN of their objections and both sides have lawyered up. The newfound allies have even complained to the United States Secretary of Commerce.

Meanwhile, .halal and .amazon are among the slew of other domain names that are also under dispute.