NEW .COM.AU DOMAIN NAME LICENSING RULES MEAN YOU NEED TO PROTECT YOUR DOMAIN NAME
With new domain name registration rules in Australia, auDA (Australian Domain Name Authority) is on 12 April 2021 toughening up the domain name registration rules.
YOU COULD LOSE YOUR AUSTRALIAN DOMAIN NAME
That would be DISASTROUS if you’ve invested a lot of money marketing your popular website, especially if your competitor buys your domain name after it’s taken off you. Foor the com.au and .net.au namespace if you are using an Australian Trade Mark as the basis for meeting the Australian presence requirement. The domain name you choose must be an exact match to the words which are the subject matter of the Australian trademark.
As described in the definitions of the Licensing Rules, an exact match means:
“… that the domain name being applied for is identical to the words which are the subject of an Australian Trade Mark. The domain name must include all the words in the order in which they appear in the Australian Trade Mark, excluding:
DNS identifiers such as com.au;
punctuation marks such as an exclamation point or an apostrophe;
articles such as ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘and ’or ‘of’; and
ampersands.”
If your name is not an exact match of the words in the trademark, you will be ineligible to hold that com.au or net.au domain.
Example
Under the new rules, if your trademark is “A Pretty Horse Carousels”
You could have:
• aprettyhorsecarousels.com.au
• prettyhorsecarousels.net.au
But not:
• phc.com.au
• Carousels.net.au
• Aprettyhorse.com.au
• horsecarousels.com.au
$300 per TM class plus my Australian trademark registration service of $500 is the cheapest to receive the TM certificate I post to you.
Protect your IP now. www.trademarkregistrationaustralia.com
Examples: The following are in different TM classes:
Swan Cement
Swan Taxi
Swan Dry Cleaners
New Australian Domain Name Registration Rules