I am starting an online business but my desired business name is similar to other registered business name/s.
Lets say the business name I want is “The Lounge Cafe”. It’s too similar to “Tim’s Lounge Cafe”, so ASIC won’t let me register my desired name.
The domain “theloungecafe.com.au” is available. Can I register “theloungecafe.com.au” as my Business Name? ASIC says it needs to manually review the application to register it. I don’t want to go through the process of trying to register if it’s gonna be a flat out no.
Anyone here have any experience in this particular situation?
You can call your domain whatever you want. For all I know it's "Thelo Unge Cafe". The website's content is another matter. If a company accuses you of infringing on a registered trademark the you could have issues. A business name or company name provides you no legal ownership to that name, just a way to identify you (even an ACN can technically operate using just their number I believe, like an ABN holder does).
I haven't really answered your question though :) Based on the rules (https://asic.gov.au/for-business/registering-a-business-name…) your domain example will end up being theloungecafe after their algorithm strips the webby parts. Phonetically, it can be read as "the lounge cafe", which will be treated as "lounge cafe", since first "the"s are ignored. But even if you get through, the original business might complain that people will get the two business names confused and seek legal action if it negatively affects their business (despite absence of a trademark - if there's a trademark then you definitely don't want to go there…).