FACTS ASSERTED BY THE COMPLAINANT AND NOT CONTESTED BY THE RESPONDENT:<\/p>\n
The Complainant is a well-known French multinational integrated energy company, present in over 130 countries, which produces and markets energies on a global scale, including oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables, and electricity. The Complainant engages in significant advertising and communications, and is ranked 106th in Brand Finance’s Global 500 2025 annual report on the world’s most valuable and strongest brands. The Complainant owns a Foundation which supports young people as part of the Complainant’s economic, social and societal contribution in France. The said foundation uses the following URL for its official website: “fondation.totalenergies.com”.<\/p>\n
The Complainant is the owner of registered trademarks for the mark TOTAL ENERGIES and the mark TOTALENERGIES FOUNDATION, as noted in the Identification of Rights section above. The Complainant is also the owner, among others, of the domain name <totalenergies.com>, registered since March 8, 2014, which is used with a subdomain as shown above to provide the location for the website used by the Complainant’s said Foundation.<\/p>\n
According to the corresponding records, the disputed domain name <fondation-totalenergies.com> was registered on January 14, 2025, and the disputed domain name <fondation-total-energies.com> was registered on February 6, 2025. Both disputed domain names do not point to active websites but are configured for e-mail. On January 15, 2025, the disputed domain name <fondation-totalenergies.com> was used to send a phishing e-mail to certain partners of the Complainant. The e-mail concerned reproduced the Complainant’s signature block, including a partial version of the Complainant’s TOTALENERGIES FOUNDATION figurative mark. The said e-mail falsely bore to be signed by, and addressed from, a current member of the Complainant’s Foundation’s Board of Directors on the authority of one of the Complainant’s senior staff, and solicited a financial transaction. On February 11, 2025, the disputed domain name <fondation-total-energies.com> was used in connection with a similar false e-mail to a similar addressee, containing a similar signature block, and addressed from the same sender in a similar manner. The e-mails in both cases attempted to solicit the payment of money by the Complainant’s said partners.<\/p>\n
Although the disputed domain names were registered by nominally different registrants, the Complainant asserts that they are subject to common control because they were registered within a short period of time with an identical registrar, the structure of the disputed domain names is identical, and they have been used in the same scheme of fraud with an identical structure of fraudulent e-mail address and content, mentioning the same personnel of the Complainant with an identical signature block representing the Complainant’s TOTALENERGIES FOUNDATION figurative mark.<\/p>", "other_legal_proceedings": "
The Panel is not aware of any other legal proceedings which are pending or decided and which relate to the disputed domain names.<\/p>", "no_response_filed": "
Complainant:<\/p>\n
The disputed domain names are subject to common control due to proximity in registration date, identical structure and identical use in the same scheme of fraud.<\/p>\n
The disputed domain names reproduce the Complainant’s TOTALENERGIES prior rights with no alteration, hyphens being irrelevant, and include the term “fondation” being the French equivalent for “foundation”, thus referencing the Complainant’s TOTALENERGIES FOUNDATION trademark. The domain name suffix for each of the disputed domain names may be disregarded for comparison purposes.<\/p>\n
The Complainant has not licensed the Respondent to use its trademarks or domain names, nor has it allowed the Respondent to reserve or use domain names incorporating the Complainant’s rights. The Respondent has used both of the disputed domain names in the same fraudulent scheme to impersonate the Complainant, its Foundation, and its employee in order to extort money. Such use can never confer rights or legitimate interests upon the Respondent, and is neither a bona fide offering of goods or services nor a legitimate noncommercial or fair use under the Policy.<\/p>\n
The bad faith of the Respondent may be presumed due to the worldwide reputation and fame of the Complainant in its industrial field, such that the Respondent could not have overlooked the existence of the Complainant’s trademarks when it registered the disputed domain names. The Respondent used the Complainant’s trademarks, logos, and employee names to send fraudulent e-mails, demonstrating prior knowledge of the Complainant and its rights. One of the disputed domain names is registered in the name of one of the members of the Complainant’s Board of Directors and both disputed domain names were used to send e-mails falsely addressed under said member’s name.<\/p>\n
Respondent:<\/p>\n
No administratively compliant Response has been filed.<\/p>", "rights": "
The Complainant has, to the satisfaction of the Panel, shown the disputed domain names are identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights (within the meaning of paragraph 4(a)(i) of the Policy).<\/p>", "no_rights_or_legitimate_interests": "
The Complainant has, to the satisfaction of the Panel, shown the Respondent to have no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the disputed domain names (within the meaning of paragraph 4(a)(ii) of the Policy).<\/p>", "bad_faith": "
The Complainant has, to the satisfaction of the Panel, shown the disputed domain names have been registered and are being used in bad faith (within the meaning of paragraph 4(a)(iii) of the Policy).<\/p>", "procedural_factors": "
The Panel is satisfied that all procedural requirements under UDRP were met and there is no other reason why it would be inappropriate to provide a decision.<\/p>", "decision": "Accepted", "panelists": [ "Andrew Lothian (Presiding Panelist)" ], "date_of_panel_decision": "2025-05-14 00:00:00", "informal_english_translation": "
Among others, the Complainant owns the following registered trademarks:<\/p>\n
European Union Registered Trademark Number 18308753 for the word mark TOTAL ENERGIES, registered on May 28, 2021 in Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 28, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, and 45; and<\/p>\n
European Union Registered Trademark Number 18488898 for the figurative mark TOTALENERGIES FOUNDATION, registered on October 8, 2021 in Classes 35, 36, 41, and 42.<\/p>", "decision_domains": { "fondation-total-energies.com": "TRANSFERRED", "fondation-totalenergies.com": "TRANSFERRED" } }