The domain names were likely registered for employment scams.
Cosmetics company L’Oréal has won (pdf) a massive cybersquatting case involving 705 domain names.
The company filed the dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
The domain names all attach job-related terms to L’Oréal’s trademarks. Examples are applicationloreal .com, careerexperiencehubloreal .online, processhiringloreal .com, and lorealhiringnetwork .com.
While none of the domains resolved to websites, the pattern suggested the registrants would use the domain names for scams.
Most UDRP cases involve a single domain name and registrant. It’s rare for a company to go after so many domains at once, as there can be challenges in consolidating cases against multiple domain registrants.
In this case, L’Oréal argued that the 52 named domain name registrants represented just one or two people. It noted that, even though there were so many names, all the domains were registered with two domain name registrars over just a couple of weeks. Furthermore, some domains with different registrant names were registered with identical email addresses.
Because the case was a slam dunk for L’Oréal, none of the registrants responded to the dispute, making it easier for panelist Adam Taylor to allow the consolidation.
Dreyfus & associés represented L’Oréal in the dispute.
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