Australian organisations, businesses and individuals can now register for a new category of domain names in Australia. This category is known as “.au direct” and will allow website URLs to drop dot com variants, ie. “www.example.au” rather than “www.example.com.au”.
Australian entities with an existing “.com.au” suffix have priority registration until 20 September 2022 to register their new “.au” domain name. After 20 September 2022, the unallocated domain names will be available for public purchase. It should be noted that the “.au” domain names will not replace current “.com.au” extensions but will instead exist alongside “.com.au”, “.net.au”, and similar domain names. Additionally, entities who have registered a domain name outside of Australia may still register a “.au” domain name. For example, an organisation with “mybusiness.com” may also register “mybusiness.au”.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre recommends that Australian entities with existing domain names take advantage of priority registration to prevent opportunistic individuals from registering “.au” equivalents. A cybercriminal may improperly register “mybusiness.au” before the true business to impersonate “mybusiness.com.au” and mislead or fraud website visitors.
Australian entities should reserve their “.au” domain names as soon as possible during the priority registration period. Australian entities may visit .au direct to view a list of accredited registrars which are authorised to provide services to entities wishing to register a new “.au” domain name.
We have helped many clients with domain name legal issues, including recovering domain names from cyber squatters. Please feel free to contact us if you have any legal problems with your domain names.
