Renewal on transfer: No
Redemption Period: 30 days
Renewal Timeframe: Within 90 day of expiration
ELIGIBILITY AND ALLOCATION CRITERIA
A Person applying for a Licence must:
- have an Australian Presence; and
- satisfy any eligibility and allocation criteria for the Namespace being applied for as specified in paragraphs below
Where a Person is applying for a Licence on behalf of a Related Australian Body Corporate, the Related Australian Body Corporate must satisfy the Australian Presence requirement.
.au direct Namespace
A Person applying for a Licence in the .au direct Namespace must have an Australian Presence, and .au direct Domain Names will be allocated according to the priority allocation process set out in the .au Direct Priority Rules.
com.au and net.au Namespace
A Person applying for a Licence in the com.au and net.au Namespaces must be
- a Commercial Entity; and
- the domain name applied for must be*:
- a Match of the Person’s company, business, statutory or Personal name; or
- an Acronym of the Person’s company, business, statutory or Personal name; or
- a Match of the Person’s Australian Trade Mark; or
- a Match to or an Acronym of a name of a Related Australian Body Corporate or
- a Match or an Acronym of a name of:
- a partnership of which the Person is a partner;
- a trust of which the Person is a trustee; or
- a Match or Synonym of the name of:
- a Service that the Person provides;
- Goods that the Person sells (whether retail or wholesale);
- an event that the Person registers or sponsors;
- an activity that the Person facilitates, teaches or trains;
- premises which the Person operates
and which that Person is providing at the time of the application.
*Does not apply where a Person has established an Australian Presence by relying on an Australian Trade Mark, the Domain Name must be an Exact Match to the words which are the subject matter of the Australian Trade Mark.
org.au Namespace
A Person applying for a Licence in the org.au Namespace must be:
- a Not for Profit Entity; and
- the Domain Name applied for must be:
(a) a Match to or Synonym of the name of:
(i) a Service that the Person provides;
(ii) a program that the Person administers;
(iii) an event that the Person registers or sponsors;
(iv) an activity that the Person facilitates, teaches or trains;
(v) premises which the Person operates;
(vi) an Occupation that its members practise;
and which that Person is providing at the time of the application; or
(b) a Match of the Person’s Legal Name, business or statutory name or the name of the unincorporated Association; or
(c) a Acronym of the Person’s Legal Name, Business Name, or statutory name; or
(d) a Match of the Person’s Australian Trade Mark; or
(e) a Match to the name of a trust of which the Person is a trustee.
asn.au
A Person applying for a Licence in the asn.au Namespace must be:
- a Not for Profit Entity or unincorporated Association; and
- the Domain Name being applied for must be:
(a) a Match to or Synonym of the name of:
(i) a Service that the Person provides;
(ii) a program that the Person administers;
(iii) an event that the Person registers or sponsors;
(iv) an activity that the Person facilitates, teaches or trains;
(v) premises which the Person operates; or
(vi) an Occupation that its members practice;
and which that Person is providing at the time of the application; or
(b) a Match of the Person’s Legal Name, business or statutory name or the name of the unincorporated Association;
(c) an Acronym of the Person’s Legal Name, Business Name, statutory name or the name of the unincorporated Association; or
(d) a Match of the Person’s Australian Trade Mark.
id.au Namespace
2.4.8 A Person applying for a Licence in the id.au Namespace must be:
- a natural Person; and
- the domain name being applied for must be:
- a Match to a Person’s Legal Name, first name or family name;
- an Acronym or abbreviation of the Person’s Legal Name, first name or family name; or
- a Nickname of the Person.
DOMAIN NAME AVAILABILITY
A Domain Name will be available where:
- it is not already registered as a Domain Name in the Namespace applied for;
- it is not a Reserved Name; and
- it complies with the syntax criteria for Domain Names in the Namespace.
A Person must not apply to register a name which is deceptively similar to a Namespace in the .au ccTLD.
A Domain Name is deceptively similar to a Namespace if it so nearly resembles that Namespace that it is likely to deceive or cause confusion to users of the Internet.
A name is deceptively similar to a Namespace, where the name omits or repeats a letter contained in the name of a second level Namespace in the .au ccTLD.
NOTE: For example: comm.au is deceptively similar to the name of the com.au namespace and co.au is also deceptively similar to com.au.
2.6 RESERVED NAMES
The following categories of reserved Domain Names are not available to be registered as a domain name:
- a word, Acronym or abbreviation that is restricted or prohibited under an Australian law;
- a name or abbreviation of an Australian state or territory, including the word ‘Australia’; or
- names that may pose a risk to the security, stability and integrity of the .au and global Domain Name System.
A Person may apply for the registration of a Domain Name whose use is prohibited under Australian law, if:
- the Person is a statutory authority for whom the name has been restricted for their use;
- the Person has Ministerial consent to use the name and a copy of that consent is provided to .au Domain Administration; or
- the Person is not captured by the relevant prohibition.
The registration of a Reserved Name may result in the Suspension or cancellation of a Licence depending upon the circumstances.
.au Domain Administration may reserve names:
- that pose a risk to the operational security, integrity and utility of the .au domain;
- where it is necessary for the proper administration of government; and
- for future use by the administrator of the .au ccTLD for operational purposes or as second level domains.
NOTE: The names specified under subparagraph 2.6.4(2) may be used to provide official services as the administrator of .au ccTLD.
.au Domain Administration must not approve any name for use as a future second level domain where the name is already registered in the .au Namespace.
.au Domain Administration must publish all the names which are proposed to be reserved for future use on the .au Domain Administration website for a minimum period of 21 calendar days.
.au Domain Administration will publish on its website, all those Reserved Names which pose a risk to the integrity, stability and security of the .au DNS, once those names have been blocked at the Registry.
SYNTAX REQUIREMENTS
A Domain Name must comply with the following syntax requirements:
- be at least two characters long;
- contain only letters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens (-), or a combination of these;
- start and end with a number or a letter, not a hyphen; and
- not contain hyphens in the third and fourth position (for example, ab— cd.com.au).
