Free tool
Business name availability check
Not built yet. Here is the order to check things in, which is the part people get wrong.
This tool is not built yet. Nothing on this page checks, calculates or looks anything up. There is no form, because there is nothing behind it. The page exists so the plan is public and so people can tell us whether it is worth building.
What it will do once it exists: Check whether a business name is free on the ASIC register, as a domain, and as a social handle, in one pass.
Until then, see the tools that already work, or tell us what you need this one to do on the contact page.
This tool is not built. When it is, it will take a proposed name and check the ASIC business names register, the trade mark register, common domain endings and the main social handles in one pass.
The order that matters
Most people check the domain first, find it free, buy it, and then discover the name is unavailable or already trade marked. Do it in this order:
- Trade marks. Search IP Australia's register. A registered trade mark in your class beats a business name registration and beats a domain. This is the check that can cost you the whole brand, and it is the one most often skipped.
- ASIC business names. Names that are identical or nearly identical to an existing registered name are refused. Nearly identical has a specific meaning in the rules and it is broader than people expect.
- The company register, if you are incorporating rather than registering a business name.
- Domains. The .com.au namespace requires an Australian presence and a connection to the name. That connection is checked at registration.
- Handles. Last, because they are the cheapest to work around.
The regional footnote
If you are naming a business on this border, decide early whether the name says Albury, Wodonga, both, or neither. Businesses that put one town in the name spend the next decade explaining that they service the other one, which is a real cost. It is also the exact problem the cross border listings on this site exist to solve.
In the meantime
ASIC's business names register and IP Australia's trade mark search are both free and public. Start with the trade mark search.
Common questions
Do I need to register a business name?
Only if you trade under a name that is not your own legal name. A sole trader operating under their own name does not need one. Anything else does.
Does registering a business name give me ownership of it?
No. A business name registration is a registration, not a property right. A trade mark is the thing that gives you an enforceable claim, and the two are separate systems administered by different bodies.
Can I register a name that is already a .com.au domain?
Possibly, but you are walking into a fight. Check the trade mark register and look at what the existing holder actually does before you commit.
Should the town be in the business name?
It helps people find you locally and it hurts you the moment you expand past that town. On this border it also implies a state, which matters more than it does anywhere else in the country.