This morning, I was looking through a list of newly registered domain names and I noticed a registration trend. A whole bunch of domain names appear to be registered related to Abbott and formula litigation. The domain names are registered to DNStination Inc., MarkMonitor’s privacy proxy service.
To give you and idea about the types of domain names that appear to have been registered, here is an assortment:
- abbottformula.com
- abbottformulatruth.com
- abbottformulatruth.com
- abbottinfantformula.com
- abbottlawsuits.com
- abbottneclitigation.com
- abbottsimilacfacts.com
- cowsmilkandnec.com
- formulaclassaction.com
- formulalawyers.com
- infantformuladeath.com
- necclassactions.com
- prematureinfantlitigation.com
From what I can tell using the DomainTools Registrant alert tool, many of the domain names appear to have been registered on February 22.
I was curious to know why these domain names may have been registered, and I read a press release from Abbott discussing a voluntary recall of some formula. You can read the full press release if you would like, but here’s a very brief excerpt:
“Abbott (NYSE: ABT) is initiating a proactive, voluntary recall of powder formulas, including Similac, Alimentum and EleCare manufactured in Sturgis, Mich., one of the company’s manufacturing facilities. The recall does not include any metabolic deficiency nutrition formulas.
Abbott is voluntarily recalling these products after four consumer complaints related to Cronobacter sakazakii or Salmonella Newport in infants who had consumed powder infant formula manufactured in this facility.”
I visited a couple of these domain names, and they were not being used at the time of publication. There’s a simple MarkMonitor landing page:
Abbott Laboratories uses MarkMonitor for its Abbott.com domain name, so the company is already a MarkMonitor client. MarkMonitor is a brand protection company, and proactively registering domain names like these would be a wise brand protection move to prevent others from registering them.
