Business name vs trade mark vs domain: the difference, in plain English

• Business name

  • What it is: A name you register with ASIC so you can legally trade under it, if it's different from your own name or your company name.

  • What it does: Lets you operate under that name.

  • What it doesn't do: Gives you no right to stop anyone else from using the same or a similar name.

  • Where / cost: ASIC — around $44 for one year or $102 for three.

• Domain

  • What it is: Your web address — yourbrand.com.au.

  • What it does: Points people to your website and reserves that exact URL while you keep paying for it.

  • What it doesn't do: Gives you no ownership of the brand itself. Someone can register a near-identical domain, or trade mark the name out from under you.

  • Where / cost: A domain registrar — around $20–$40 a year.

• Trade mark

  • What it is: A registered legal right over your brand identifier (name, logo, tagline) within a category of goods or services.

  • What it does: Gives you the exclusive right to use — and to stop others using — that brand in your category. It's the only one of the three that actually protects you.

  • What it doesn't do: Doesn't let you trade (that's the business name) or run a website (that's the domain).

  • Where / cost: IP Australia — around $250 per class for a standard application, renewable every ten years.

What a business name really is

A registered business name is permission to trade under a name that isn't your own. If you operate as your name (“Jane Smith”) or your company name (minus the “pty ltd”), you don't need one. However, the moment you trade as a different name like "Bright Studio," ASIC requires that you register the name.

But here's the part that catches people: registering a business name with ASIC does not give you any ownership of that name. It's an administrative requirement, not a property right. Two businesses can hold near-identical business names, and neither can stop the other on the strength of the ASIC registration alone. If you think your business name protects your brand, it doesn't.

What a domain really is

A domain is a rental. You pay a registrar to point a web address at your site, and you hold it for as long as you keep paying.

It feels like ownership because it's exclusive - only one person can hold yourbrand.com.au at a time. But the exclusivity is technical, not legal. Someone can register yourbrand.com (without the .au), yourbrand.co, or a hyphenated version, and you have no automatic right to stop them. And crucially, holding the domain gives you no right to the brand name itself, but someone else can still register it as a trade mark.

What a trade mark really is (and why it's the one that matters)

A trade mark is the only one of the three that gives you a legal right to exclude. Once registered with IP Australia, it gives you the exclusive right to use your brand - and to stop other people using the same or a confusingly similar brand - for the goods or services you've registered it against.

So a business name lets you operate; a domain lets you have a website; but a trade mark lets you own the brand and defend it. If someone starts trading under your name, the trade mark is the thing you point to to stop them. Nothing else on this list gives you that power.

A worked example

Say you launch "Bright Studio," a design agency. You register the business name with ASIC, you grab brightstudio.com.au, and you start trading. You feel covered - boxes ticked.

Eighteen months in, another design agency launches as "Bright Studio Co," registers their own business name, and starts ranking above you. You go to stop them but:

• the ASIC registration won't help since business names don't grant exclusivity.

• The domain won't help since they've got a different URL.

With no registered trade mark, you have no straightforward right to make them stop, and you may even find they've now applied to trade mark "Bright Studio" themselves.

So which do you actually need?

Most founders need all three, but for different reasons. You need a business name to trade legally. You need a domain to have a website. And you need a trade mark to own and protect your brand - but this is the one most people skip! But the cost of skipping it just shows up later.

If your brand matters (ie. if you're building something you'd be upset to lose) the trade mark is one to prioritise.

Want the full picture?

Our free 2026 founder's guide walks through exactly how to register a trade mark in Australia — the steps, the costs, the timelines, and the mistakes to avoid. Twenty-six pages, written by an Australian lawyer, no fluff.