New .au Domains

• Shorter and simpler to remember
• Uniquely Australian
• More options available (as it is a newer namespace and you must have an Australian Presence to be eligible)
• Easier to register (no allocation rules like other Australian namespaces such as .com.au, .org.au etc)

Any Person with an Australian Presence such as:

• A Sole Trader, Partnership, Company, Charity, Association or Trust with a current ABN or ACN.
• A permanent Australian resident or citizen.
• A foreign business with an Australian trademark application or registration.

Where there are multiple applications for a contested name, the following principles apply:

• Category 1 applicants have priority over Category 2 applicants.
• Where there are multiple Category 1 applications, the name is allocated on agreement / negotiation between the Category 1 applicants.
• Where there are only Category 2 applicants, the name is allocated to the applicant with the earliest creation date.

Negotiation between multiple category 1 applicants

Where there are multiple Category 1 applications, those registrants will need to negotiate between themselves to determine who will be allocated the .au direct domain name they have applied for.

Applicants will be able to contact each other via the publicly available registrant contact information found in WHOIS.

Where an agreement is reached:

• The agreed applicant(s) will withdraw their applications.
• The name is allocated to the registrant with the only active Priority Status application remaining for an initial one-year licence term.

Where no agreement is reached:

• The .au direct domain name remains subject to a Priority Hold.
• The name remains on Priority Hold until there is only one active application remaining.

Applicants will need to renew their application on a yearly basis.