What if someone else has registered my domain?

If another party has infringed your trademark or has conducted abusive registration (such as registering a domain to prevent you from using it), you can take this up with your registrar. A registrar must follow the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

This will prevent the registrar from cancelling, suspending or transferring a domain name until agreement, court action or arbitration has been reached. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) can provide more information about domain name disputes.

How do I dispute a .com.au domain name? Is it different to a .com dispute?

Alternatively you can register the domain with a different extension that has not yet been registered such as .net or .biz or register a variation of the domain you had indented to register.