As part of the National Business Names reforms (background) the Government has released an exposure draft Business Names (Availability of Name) Determination 2011 for the purpose of deciding whether a business name can be registered.

The Determination sets out the rules for determining whether a business name is identical or nearly identical to another name, the kinds of business name that are undesirable for the purposes of the Act and restricted words or expressions (some of which may be allowed with consent).

A business name is deemed to be identical or nearly identical to another name if, despite the characters used in the name, it may be pronounced the same as the other name.

For example:
1 ‘Creative@Work’ is the same as ‘Kre8tive at Work’.
2 ‘100% Cats’ is the same as ‘100 percent Kats’.
3 ‘Dollar Shop’ is the same as ‘$ Shop’.

There are 177 examples of words and expressions that are taken to be the same when comparing a business name with another name to determine whether the names are identical or nearly identical.

For example, “barista, baristas, coffee, coffees, espresso, espresso bar, espresso bars, espressos, expresso, expresso bar, expresso bars, expressos”.