Tag: .AU

The priority allocation period for .AU direct closes on 20 September 2022. If you hold a domain name in any other .au namespace (eg. com.au, org.au, id.au etc.), created prior to 24 March 2022, you are able to apply for Priority Status to register its exact match in .au direct until this date.

Domains on priority hold will be released on Monday 3 October 2022.

To be eligible to register a domain name in .au direct (forexample.au), the registrant must have an Australian presence as defined in licensing rules of AUDA.

For foreign companies, this means they must have a trademark registered with IP Australia, and the domain name must be an exact match of the trademark.

If the launch of .AU direct represents an opportunity for companies wishing to gain visibility on the Australian Web, it also constitutes a risk for trademark holders in case of reservation of domain names identical to their trademarks from a third party (whether it is a cybersquatter with the opportunity to register with a connection to Australia or a homonymous rights holder).

For any information, don’t hesitate to contact your Nameshield’s expert.

Image source: kitkatty007 via Pixabay

Until now, Australian domain names were only available for registrations in second level extensions, in particular .COM.AU.

If the decision to open the .AU registration goes back to 2015, it took four years to set the rules!

It seems that starting October 1^st, 2019, the holder of the existing .com.au domain name, for example forexample.com.au, will be able to apply for priority status to register the exact match of their existing name in .AU, forexample.au.

The detail of the priority allocation system are below:

• 2 priority status (from 2019/10/01 to 2020/04/01)

–Category 1 : Third level domain names (com.au, net.au, org.au, asn.au, id.au, edu.au, qld.edu.au, nsw.edu.au, eq.edu.au, act.edu.au, vic.edu.au, sa.edu.au, wa.edu.au, nt.edu.au, catholic.edu.au, schools.nsw.edu.au, education.tas.edu.au, sa.au, wa.au, nt.au, qld.au, nsw.au, vic.au, tas.au and act.au) registered on February 4^th 2018 at the latest will be assigned to priority category 1 for the registration of the same name in .AU.

–Category 2: Third level domain names registered after February 4^th 2018 will be assigned to priority category 2 for the registration of the same name in .AU.

• The date of the general availability is not announced yet.

The registry indicates that more information will be published in the next weeks, we will keep you informed.

The new .AU licensing rules might also come into effect at the fourth quarter of 2019 (for all the extensions: .au, .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, .asn.au, .id.au).

Lastly, we can note that the general availability will allow the registration to individuals/companies which respect the Australian registry’s conditions (local presence in Australia).

For any questions, Nameshield’s teams are at your disposal.