What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is an address used to identify a website on the Internet. They are like a street address.

Every domain name must be unique — and they play an important role for businesses to establish their online identity and brand.

Domain names have to be registered through a domain name provider. The process is normally quick and relatively cheap.

However, this can cause an issue where another person registers a domain name that is similar to an existing one.

An unscrupulous operator can register confusingly similar domain names to trick unsuspecting users into believing their domain name is associated with the official website. Or, they might register a domain name in the hope of selling it back to the rightful business operator for profit.

What is a Domain Name Dispute?

A Domain Name Disptue arises when there is a conflict over a given domain name.

For example, a person or organisation may claim that the domain name infringes their intellectual property rights or trade mark, or that the domain name is confusing, misleading or deceptive.

Official Domain Name Registries have established a dispute resolution process to deal with these disputes.

For Australian domain names (ending in *.au) the process is known as the auDRP. For many global domains (ending in *.com for example), the UDRP applies.