Generic Domain 'stolen' Via Udrp

[Theo]

Everything in this decision stinks like rotten fish.

 

[katherine]

Clearly a case of losing by default. The panelist could still have ruled in favor of the respondent even though the respondent did not reply. Was he even aware ?

Having reviewed the communications records, the Administrative Panel (the "Panel") finds that the National Arbitration Forum has discharged its responsibility under Paragraph 2(a) of the Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Rules") "to employ reasonably available means calculated to achieve actual notice to Respondent" through submission of Electronic and Written Notices, as defined in Rule 1 and Rule 2.

Having read the discussion I think the crux of the matter is this: the issue is not whether the respondent is right or wrong.
The entity in question doesn't exist anymore, so the underlying logic must be that if you don't exist you have no rights whatsoever !
“In the absence of a response, it is appropriate to accept as true all allegations of the Complaint.”

Now something interesting:

For some reason the domain name continues to be registered each year, despite the fact that the registrar listed the expiration date as December 15, 2001. The domain name has never been used for any active purpose.

Indeed the whois confirms this:

Domain Name: BRANDENHANCEMENT.COM
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Registrar URL: http://networksolutions.com
Updated Date: 2013-08-26T00:00:00Z
Creation Date: 1999-12-15T00:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2001-12-15T00:00:00Z

Either the whois record is not up to date, or it's like the registrar has been quietly renewing the domain on behalf of the registrant, while still not formally repossessing the domain like they usually do to auction it... catch my drift ?
I have seen Netsol quietly repossessing valuable domains that were 'abandoned'. Just saying.

The mystery here is, who has been paying the renewal bills, in other words who is the true beneficial owner of this domain.

 

[Theo]

I think the auto-renewal is based on some prepaid method e.g. cc. The hosting plan is definitely obsolete, hence the domain does not resolve.