From Bad Faith to Reuse: An Empirical Study of Respondent Defences and Domain Life Cycles in UDRP Cases

This study examines how DNS abuse is addressed through the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and its longer-term effectiveness. It focuses on respondents' defensive tactics to contest DNS abuse allegations and on post-decision domain status, including potential continued malicious use. Method: All publicly available UDRP cases issued by WIPO and the Forum between January 2000 and December 2024 were collected and analysed. A 5\% uniform simple random sample was qualitatively coded for respondent defensive tactics using a codebook implemented via a large language model. Result: Panels explicitly framed a minority of cases as involving DNS abuse. Such framing was associated with higher transfer rates, lower respondent participation, and more recent decision years. nRespondent arguments were skewed toward simple denial of the complainant's allegations. Post-decision analysis shows that transferred domains sometimes lapse, are re-registered, and may continue to appear as malicious in threat intelligence feeds. Conclusions: The UDRP effectively transfers abusive domains but does not guarantee durable mitigation of DNS abuse risks. DNS abuse framing appears to marginalise respondent participation while consolidating complainant success. Findings highlight the importance of post-transfer domain management and suggest procedural and technical reforms to reduce repeat victimisation and persistent malicious use.