The Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of Bouches du Rhône was recently the victim of cybersquatting for its domain name pompiers13.fr. (firefighters)
This domain name has mistakenly not been renewed and was reserved by a third party which hastened to make it… a pornographic site.
The amicable recovery procedures having failed, the firefighters had to “extinguish the fire” thanks to an PARL procedure (alternative dispute resolution procedure), during which they were able to demonstrate that they held prior rights, in particular trademark rights, to the name POMPIERS 13 and that the website developed on the fraudulently reserved domain name could harm their profession.
Justice was done and the domain name returned to the fold of the firefighters.
