Fiji’s military government has written to software giant Microsoft demanding the company not use their country name in any of its products.

Fiji’s interim attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum released a letter sent to Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates, after media reports the software company may call its yet-to-be-released software Windows Fiji.

"As a sovereign state the government asserts its absolute ownership over the use of the word Fiji and reserves all its rights under all relevant laws to protect and defend the use of the word Fiji," the letter says.

"Microsoft Corporation is hereby instructed to immediately cease and desist with any use of the word Fiji in relation to any of its products now or in the future."

But Microsoft’s Ben Green told Fairfax media the name Fiji was an internal working code name for the Windows Media Center TV software package.

"(It) is not intended to be used in an external marketing context," he said.

On June 11, The South Asian Post reported that Fiji’s interim military regime has mounted a challenge against Kohinoor Grocery of Surrey, for using the Fiji name on its tinned fish.