Not really - it is more a symptom of the complaints process and or the problem of nice names
Take
http://www.germany.com/ for example - if he were to semi-develop or put a price up the country of germany would probably have a crack at nicking the domain.
The other question when you have a high traffic 'proper' generic is that the people visiting may all want different things ie. japanese food, japanese maps , japanese language lessons, japanese hotels etc so to do them justice the developed site needs to be done properly
Or - let the searchers adapt the displayed guide keywords over time to the most common and relavant and then allow advertisers to pay to be listed assuming those who pay the most to come out on top have the most relavant content
i don't agree in full tbh Rob.
it's a bit of a copout, i mean there are hundreds of countries, most are in private hands .
as far as i'm aware people have tried with geo domains (partic. countries) & always failed through wipo. mainly because you can't get more generic.
off the top of my head new zealand.com is one
you also have the option, (if someone tried) of having past cases to fall back on, plus you would have a 3 man panel for sure
however wipo has made freakish decisions in the past & with something huge like Germany.com , who knows what politics or backhanders go on behind closed doors. even at wipo
it should be developed & would be a big job , but the money would be made back in no time. probably if you saved 6 months parking in the first instance it would pay for the job. Applies for japan & Germany
think like you say , the problem with nice names is you can't develop them all, but a country com is not just nice, they're the ultimate imo
Maybe the owner owns a glut of top names & is spoilt for choice? For sure , just one of these babies would probably be a fulltime job.
Most have been 'warehoused'

by the same firms.
However, encouraging to see more & more seem to be developed.
Japan.com or Germany.com would be nice to find in the stocking come Christmas, eh? Lol