Just like anyone is free to advertise the name of a country or city on paid advertisement or on his store without first acquiring the consent or paying "trademark" fees to the country/city administration, no government or city should forcefully "hijack" or take your .com or .net domain from you.
http://www.whois.sc/news/2003-04/zealand-domain.html
The New Zealand government has come under fire for spending $1 million of tax-payers money on buying the domain NewZealand.com from previous owners Virtual Countries. That's one million New Zealand dollars, but it still equates to a healthy £350,000.
The figure only came to light this week following an angry parliamentary question by MP Rodney Hide. However, tourism minister Mark Burton thinks it's a good deal and has some facts to back it up: "There is no question that this domain will provide an invaluable portal for commercial entry into New Zealand for those interested in tourism, commerce, and industry," he told Parliament.
Here comes the justification: "The South African government offered Virtual Countries $10 million for SouthAfrica.com. It has also been reported that Korea.com was sold for $5 million to True Net, Korea's largest Internet service provider." That's alright then.
Except what Mr Burton didn't mention of course was that the $1m price tag included a premium because the government had already tried to take the domain by force at domain arbitrator WIPO - and was actually found guilty of domain hijacking.