Little known about Nissan: It took 8 years and a fortune to fight a man, claiming nissan.com but failed

Nissan – one of the biggest car brands in Japan, never cared about who Uzi Nissan was. What they want is the domain name www.nissan.com that he has registered in 1994 for the small retail company of the same name.

Nissan, as a big man, decided … to sue Uzi for the domain name on the same amount of compensation 10 million USD. Uzi of course did not accept the Japanese brand’s approach and struggled to the end, then almost lost everything …

One thing that you can’t find even if you do an eye-strain search on nissan.com is an article about the losses Uzi suffered after the lawsuit. It all started with a phone call in October 1999 …

Before that, though, let’s learn about the Uzi Nissan a bit.

Due to being used to doing everything from store to workshop on his own, Uzi went on to build an “online store” with the Nissan Computer website in 1994. At that time, “most people thought. The internet is going nowhere, “says Uzi, but he doesn’t think so.

While Uzi just entered the US, Nissan Motor is still exporting cars to the US under the brand name Datsun. It was not until 1983 that they switched to using the main brand Nissan and died Datsun in 1985 – the time when “Datsun by Nissan” became the new symbol of Nissan North America with extremely high cost (cost of Nissan when about 30 million USD).

It should be added that Uzi Nissan and Nissan have nothing to do with each other, the dispute between the two sides is purely about language. Nissan is a common word in Arabic and Hebrew, and is also a middle name that is common to Jews. Meanwhile, the word Nissan in Nissan Motor is an acronym from the name of its origin in the 1930s is Nihon Sangyo meaning “Japanese Industry”.

The road between the two unrelated Nissan suddenly cut through each other in October 1999 when Uzi Nissan received a voice message from Merrill Davis, the director of electronic business at Nissan North America, about the negotiation of history. using the domain name nissan.com that Uzi holds. At the beginning of the negotiation, none of them thought that this was the beginning of a nearly 10-year legal battle between David and Goliath that cost each side millions of dollars …

Of course, the loser was none other than Uzi when his personal life was turned upside down and his accumulated assets were exhausted because of Nissan ambitions …

Uzi’s answer to Nissan was no, even when the two sides sat down to discuss it directly. Davis then said that he would return to consult senior leaders to find a reasonable solution. The two sides again sat at the negotiating table in December but Uzi’s opinion did not change: he did not want to sell his domain name. Uzi even offered a heavenly price ($ 15 million) to show his determination, while avoiding being bothered by Nissan.

For Uzi, Nissan is not just his name but his life and company. He founded the company three times from scratch and didn’t want to give it up.

The answer given by Nissan Motor is … suing and claiming 10 million USD with accusations that Nissan Computer violates copyright, falsifying brand image, damages brand value, unfair competition. Strong and Cyber-squatting (registering a famous brand domain name to then find a way to resell or post content that harms the brand’s main reputation).

Nissan Motor’s Cyber-squatting accusation saw Uzi’s first win. In the first part of the new century, this is the headache of many big companies when the Internet now officially becomes a new trend to replace the period just a decade earlier.

However, the court quickly denied the allegations of Nissan Motor because Uzi Nissan used his name as the company name for more than a decade before registering the domain name nissan.com, not to mention the website content also serves the public. company with the same name mentioned above. Likewise, the allegation of unfair competition was quickly dismissed.

However, the court also ruled in favor of Nissan Motor about the area of ​​falsifying copyright images in April 2002 because the website nissan.com had advertisements related to cars that could mislead viewers. thought they were related to Nissan.

In December of the same year, the court decided … to cancel the above judgment after Uzi’s struggle, in return he … not to defame Nissan, not to post negative information about Nissan North America on the website at the same time. do not link to posts of such possibility.

Feeling that the court’s order was too strict and in the favor of Nissan North America, Uzi continued to appeal with evidence that they had violated his freedom under the First Amendment (First Amendment).

Due to the controversy during that time, Uzi has received the support of a non-profit organization founded by Ralph Nader – Public Citizen. Several websites, such as digest.com, were set up to track the facts, post relevant evidence and support Uzi’s freedom.

After a period of enduring struggle for nearly half a decade, Uzi got his justice when in August 2004, they ruled that Uzi did not damage the brand image or cause misleading about Nissan. time to reject the request to take the domain name nissan.com from the Japanese brand …

… but it doesn’t end there.

Not to give up, Nissan North America took the case to the federal Supreme Court. However, they refused to accept the sentence and turn it back to the state court to make a final decision. Every time a state court ruling in favor of Uzi, certain provisions were either left unreported or neutral, allowing Nissan North America to keep the case due to its financial availability.

The goal of Nissan North America at the moment is clear: to put Uzi in a legal war that he cannot afford to sue until the end, thereby forcing himself to give up. Even when the state court asked the two parties to meet for conciliation 3 times, everything was not resolved.

Not only finances, but Uzi Nissan’s life is also completely turned upside down due to being swept up in a persistent lawsuit. Therefore, his “feud” with Nissan North America is so deep that it is difficult for both sides to reach a neutral commitment …

“Due to knowing they will lose the lawsuit, Nissan has decided to remove the $ 10 million compensation clause and focus only on the copyright infringement allegations to take back the domain nissan.com,” Uzi told Jalopnik. when you remember that time. In September 2007, the state court issued a final verdict …

Uzi’s lawsuit lasted more than eight years and cost, according to Uzi’s confirmation, nearly $ 3 million. Sharing with Jalopnik, he said he did not want to talk too much about his personal life at that time showed that it was a difficult time that Uzi did not want to remember.

The Nissan Computer business also got into trouble because of the lawsuit. ” Who wants to buy a computer from a company that is in the middle of a lawsuit against a big corporation like Nissan? ” Admits Uzi. He also affirmed that if he knew that Nissan had such a cruel way of handling, he would choose a different approach so as not to affect himself and his family as now.

Uzi has to appear in court once a week. He had to read hundreds of pages of documents related to the incident to make sure they were not flawed so that Uzi did not have much time to do other things …

Contrary to Uzi’s situation, Nissan still had a successful time after that and only really had trouble in the last 1 or 2 years.

However, Uzi did not have the opportunity to see the “end” of his opponent when he died in 2020.

” They may not get what they want from me, but they can still sue anyone if they want. $ 10 million to sue a person. What’s wrong with them? It’s just a drop in the ocean. The lawsuit will ruin the lives of small people who dare to fight them “- Uzi Nissan.