Shorter versions of Australian domain names are here and the ramifications could be serious
You should reserve your rights to the shorter version of your domain name now before the 20 September 2022 deadline according to the Australian Small Business Ombudsman Bruce Billson.
Yourname.com.au and Yourname.au are confusingly similar and are easily confused when sending emails or if an email from Yourname.au was sent to your clients.
Imagine an email requesting invoice payments to a new bank account was sent to your clients from Yourname.au. Would your clients pick up the difference?
“Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson has urged small businesses to protect their online property, as the cutoff date for priority access to shortened domains looms.” (https://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/cyber-security/news-bruce-billson-auda-cutoff/)
After the deadline (20 September 2022) if you have not reserved your eligibility by applying for a token, then anybody with an Australian presence can register the shorter version of your domain name.
“The consequences of not registering your existing business name by this deadline could be catastrophic for a business if a rival or someone else took their online name,” Billson warned.
After this date, anyone can purchase the domain name and begin stealing traffic, impersonating the original site, or demand dollars.
“I implore all small business owners to take a few minutes to work out if they want the shortened .au domain or will be unhappy for someone else to have it,” Billson said.
The registrar from whom you purchased your domain licence should be able to help you. Here is a list of Australian domain registrars but searching your emails for the renewal notice might be faster (eg: search “yourdomainname.com.au + renewal”).
Some registrars automatically apply for the token when you apply for the shorter domain and others rely on you to apply for the token.
You can apply for the token here: https://priority.auda.org.au/ (you need to click the link in the email auDA send to the email address associated with your domain name).
Are there any other contenders for your domain name?
As well as the .com.au version there are many other versions of Australian domain names that will be eligible for a domain name with the exact same spelling. As well as .com.au these include:
.net.au
.asn.au
.org.au
.edu.au
.id.au
.gov.au
.nsw.gov.au (applies for all states)
All of these versions with “yourdomain” are eligible for the shorter domain.
You can check if they have applied here: https://www.auda.org.au/tools/priority-status-tool
After you enter your name into the tool the results will list any eligible entities for that name in Categories and in order of precedence.
If there are Category 1 and 2 applicants: Category 1 applicants have priority.
If there are multiple Category 1 applicants: applicants can either negotiate an outcome or keep renewing their token for future years (potentially for ever).
If there are only Category 2 applicants: the earliest registration gets the allocation.
If your domain is uncontested it can be purchased immediately.
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