

Nissan vs. Nissan (2008) - dsr12
http://www.digest.com/Big_Story.php

======
jriordan
Fascinating case. The resolution [1]:

"The case continued to a final injunction which allowed Nissan Computer
Corporation to maintain control of the domains Nissan.com and Nissan.net so
long as it neither advertised nor mentioned/made disparaging comments about
Nissan Motor. Nissan Motor then filed a series of appeals that ultimately
resulted in the same judgment in favor of Nissan Computer Corporation."

So Mr. Nissan wins and NissanUSA would probably be best burying the
information about this case due to the negative publicity (for their otherwise
excellent brand) and the fact that Mr. Nissan is eloquent and persuasive about
the rights to his own name.

Perhaps this is a lesson in how NOT to pursue a perceived cyber-squatter?

[1] _[http://www.yalelawtech.org/ip-in-the-digital-age/why-
nissan-...](http://www.yalelawtech.org/ip-in-the-digital-age/why-nissan-com-
isn%E2%80%99t-a-car-website/*)

~~~
USNetizen
Read the entire article and timeline. That wasn't the final resolution - it
was appealed and he won the right to do as he wishes with those sites/domains.

------
moubarak
"I've seen people do worse things to you in corporate settings than i see them
doing on the street. They take everything from you" \- 50cent (from the
"Champs" documentary)

------
jakozaur
Both sides would be fare better off if they came to out of court agreement and
sell domain to Nissan Motors.

1\. This is not usual cybersquating, a legitimate, but far less popular
business.

2\. Given Nissan Motors financials, paying few mln USD is a drop in the
bucket:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan)

3\. On the other hand that would be a lot of money for Uzi Nissan.

4\. Spending 10+ years in court is counter-productive and probably already
cost several times more in opportunity gains. Both sides losses. Business
equivalent of prison dilemma:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma)

5\. Low-cost meditation. Send each party copy of book:
[http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Yes-Negotiating-Agreement-
With...](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Yes-Negotiating-Agreement-
Without/dp/B001TI3OFA)

Book a weekend trip to some luxurious place, where each party can get
comfortable and try to strike a deal.

~~~
adebtlawyer
1\. Of course it wasn't cyber squatting. Cyber squatting is unlawful in the
U.S. and would have lead to a different outcome.

2\. Why wasn't there a settlement? I assume either Mr. Nissan didn't want to
sell the domains at any price (unlikely but possible) or insisted Nissan pay
eleventy bajillion dollars for them, leaving Nissan with court as their best
option.

------
USNetizen
I first saw this back over ten years ago and didn't hear of it again until it
popped up on here today. I thought it was an interesting case study in
corporate overreach at the time and sort of glad to see Mr. Nissan has
prevailed to some degree after all these years. Given his $MILLIONS in legal
fees, I would assume he has some strong backers out there somewhere.

~~~
jules
The guy has run multiple successful businesses, so maybe he paid for it
himself. If only the US had a sane legal system (i.e. loser pays), then the
poor could get justice too, rather than inevitably losing a battle of
attrition.

------
circlingthesun
I guess Nissan Motors better change their name now.

------
disordinary
Interesting that its a Japanese company going after a US company for trademark
infringements, its normally US companies going after small local companies.

There used to be a Duff micro brewery in Dunedin brewed by a Mr Duff, and
opened in the late 80's before the Simpsons mainstream success (at least in
NZ).

There are the breweries of the town of Budweiss in the Czech republic
espeacially the beer now known as Budvar vs Budweisser. Even in NZ where they
don't sell Budweisser beers brewed in the town of Budweiss are known as
Budvar.

------
zaidf
I've met Mr. Nissan and did some contract work for his site years ago. At the
time, he was looking for ideas to turn Nissan.com into a destination website
of some sort :)

------
zyxley
I'd feel more sympathetic towards Mr. Nissan if the nissan.com website was
actually being primarily used for a business instead of being plastered with
ads.

~~~
electic
It used to be a computer company, this lawsuit really has forced them to put
ads to make ends meet to keep fighting this. You can see the history of the
website at WBM[1]

[1][https://web.archive.org/web/19961112111421/http://www.nissan...](https://web.archive.org/web/19961112111421/http://www.nissan.com/)

~~~
zyxley
Surely there could be something business-related that would bring in more
money than just ads, though?

The most financially beneficial thing that comes to mind for me would be a
front-page category of car electronics and other vehicle widgets for online
ordering - rear-view camera kits, smartphone car finders, USB cigarette
adapters, etc.

~~~
rgbrenner
trademarks are granted per industry.. so although Nissan Computers doesn't
infringe and gets to keep the name... if he changes his site to a car
electronics site (as you suggest), that may allow Nissan Auto to take him back
to court and take the name.

After all, that would be Nissan Computer Corp changing industries to benefit
from Nissan Auto's trademark... and that change would have definitely occurred
after Nissan Auto was in the market (meaning he has no right to "Nissan" in
the auto industry).

------
davnicwil
Random, off topic, question @OP just to satisfy my curiosity - did you find
this article following research after reading this comment?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10030906](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10030906)

My 'deja vu' sense went off having seen the same rather obscure thing
referenced twice today, now I notice both that comment and this post were
submitted around the same time- I wonder if it's one of those remarkable
coincidences or if one led to the other? (I'm assuming if the latter that this
post would have followed that comment since commenter seems to imply with
'favourite' that they've been aware of it for longer than 5 minutes)

~~~
xamuel
Can't speak for dsr12, but I can confirm your assumption, I wrote that comment
before seeing this present submission. Another possibility could be dsr12 read
PG's essay and submitted this because he or she thought it was topical,
without having read the comments on PG's essay.

~~~
davnicwil
Cheers!

A stupid aside but just had to know ;-)

------
jayvanguard
According to Wikipedia:

    
    
      In 1934, Aikawa separated the expanded automobile parts division of Tobata 
      Casting and incorporated it as a new subsidiary, which he 
      named Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
    

This guy knew exactly what he was doing in 1994. There are tons of people with
the last name McDonald and I'm sure a few of them thought about starting some
rinky-dink shell company to get McDonalds.com. Heck, I remember when it was
still available and thought about registering it but I'm just not that sleazy.

------
krallja
(Last update 2008)

