Recovery · drop-catcher
A drop-catcher registered your old name
When a .au name is released, drop-catchers try to register it at once. If one caught your name, you have two paths: buy it back, or check the holder against the rules.
How it happens
The name went through the drop list
An expired .au name has a 30-day expired hold. Then it goes on the public drop list for 24 hours. Then it is released, and the first eligible application wins. Drop-catchers watch the drop list.
Your options
Two paths to get the name back
Buy it back
Many drop-catchers register names to sell them. We contact the holder for you, without your name, and negotiate. You pay our broker fee only if the deal completes.
Check the holder against the rules
For a .com.au name, the holder must be a commercial entity, and the name must Match its business or company name, an acronym of that name, its Australian trade mark, or the name of a service or goods that it sells (rule 2.4.4). auDA takes complaints about a holder who does not meet the rules, and it can cancel the licence.
For a .au direct name, the holder needs only an Australian presence (rule 2.4.3). So a complaint is less likely to help, and buying the name back is often the practical path.
We do not give legal advice. We tell you what the rules say and what the registry record shows, and we make the approach if you want to buy.
Enquiries
Send us the name
Type the web address and what the name shows now, for example a parking page or a for-sale sign. We reply by email.
- A person reads your enquiry. No bot replies.
- We check the name on the registry record.
- We reply by email with what we found and your options.