The admin stated they won’t be renewing the domain because .af is now controlled by the Taliban.
Link to post: https://queer.af/@postmaster/111733741786950083
I’m sure Google didn’t buy those for the purpose of actually using them, but rather to prevent someone else from registering and using them.
Two businesses can trademark the same name if they are operating in different industries. Or, the name could have spaces or punctuation that renders the same as a TLD.
Go Ogle Photographic & Paparazzi Inc. could have a reasonable claim to the same .google
TLD. The registration fee is chump change for Google/Alphabet to make sure this can’t happen.