The document analyzes a legal dispute between Uzi Nissan of Nissan Computers and Nissan Motors regarding the ownership of the domain names nissan.com and nissan.net. The central issue revolves around Mr. Nissan's claim to use his family name for his business, while Nissan Motors argues that it threatens their brand reputation. Various stakeholders' opinions and court rulings from 1999 to 2008 regarding the case are discussed, highlighting the impact on both parties' rights and reputations.

1. MOT 612
Innovation Management
Spring 2010
Nissan.com Case Analysis
By:
Name: Al-Motaz Bellah Alaa ElDin Al-Agamawi
ID: 102027

2. Nissan.com domain name case is very interesting and it includes many point of views and
different argument. In this paper, we are going to state the facts from each party point of view
including Nissan computer and Nissan Motors, in addition to general public point of view,
lawyer’s point of view an Internet Analysis for Nissan.com will be included and finally our
conclusion.
This case in between first party, Mr. Uzi Nissan, founder and president of Nissan Computers
Corp, which is in cooperated in state of North Carolina since May 19911. Second Party is Nissan
Motors2 a well know automotive industry leader since the early 20th century. The main issue and
argument between the two parties is the right of owning and using www.nissan.com domain
name. Mr. Uzi Nissan claim is based on that Nissan is his family name and he is using it as his
business brand since mid 70s and on the other hand, Nissan motors is claiming that Nissan is its
own brand name and the usage of Mr. Uzi for the domain name is risking their brand reputation
and affecting the company. We will illustrate the case during the coming couple of lines, through
illustrating the case facts, then the opinion of all stakeholders.
The case started in December 1999, when Nissan Motors started a legal action by asking for 10
Million USD in return for the damage caused by usage of Mr. Uzi Nissan for the domain name
nissan.com and nissan.net. The case has gone through different court stages from 1999 and until
2008. In December 2002, the court give Nissan Computer (Mr. Uzi Nissan) to use and keep both
Nissan.com and Nissan.Net domain names but with some usage restrictions including,
advertisement restriction on the domain names especially for advertisements related to
automotive industry, a clear restriction of any negative comments about Nissan Motors on the
domain names or even linking to sites having negative issues, clearly noting in the domain names
sites that there is no relation with Nissan Motors. Mr. Uzi and his councilors did not agree with
the court decision and they believe that it is against normal American citizen constitutional rights
and they appeal. Both parties stay in different courts, with different decision until September
2007 when the court issues a final decision stating that, Nissan Computer did not Dilute NMC's
mark and have the complete rights to use the domain name, also denied NMC's requests for
1
Source: http://www.digest.com/Big_Story.php
2
Source: http://www.ehow.com/about_5048073_history-nissan-motor-company.html

3. Permanent Injunctions, In February 2008 the court final judgment was Nissan Motor is NOT
entitled to attorneys' fees.
From Mr. Uzi Nissan his argument3 is that Nissan is his family name and it is his natural right to
use it as he wants. Since 1976 and just after he went to the US, he started to use his family name
as his business brand in more than one company. In addition, he claims that at that time Nissan
Motors was operating under the DATSUN brand name. He also claims that when he starts in the
80s using the Nissan name in his business, this was not because of the reputation of Nissan
Motors, which he claims that at this time, it was none as DATSUN but he did this because it is
his family name. In addition, he claims that Nissan Computer was incorporated in 1991 and they
bought the nissan.com domain name in 1994 and then in 1996 he bought nissan.net.
On the other side, Nissan Motors claim the following4. Nissan Motors claims that it first registers
the Nissan trademark in 1959 for ships and vehicles products. Vehicles were sold under the name
of DATSUN until 1983 and they market the vehicles under the two names Nissan and DATSUN
until 1985 then they used the Nissan brand only from that time. In July 1995, Nissan Motors sent
a clear letter expressing concerns about the usage of Nissan Computer for the Nissan brand.
Nissan computer did not respond until a direct communication from Nissan Motors to Mr. Uzi in
1999. In October 1999, Nissan Motors proposed a purchase offer to Mr. Uzi regarding
nissan.com domain name but unfortunately, they did not reach a deal. In addition, Nissan Motors
claims that Nissan Computers are benefiting from including many advertisements related to
automotives and specially Nissan Motors competitive on the website and that this is a trademark
dilution and miss use.
3
Source: http://www.digest.com/
4
Source: http://www.linksandlaw.com/decisions-141-nissan.htm

4. As an analysis for the Nissan.com and Nissan.net online
visitors traffic. We can found that since August 1999
Nissan Computers have started aggressive advertisement
marketing on the website through registration with other
specialized website banners advertisement companies.
Started with banners and links to goto.com, Barnes &
Noble, CNet.com, and Netradio.com. Automobile-
related ads appeared in late September. Within several Figure 1 Top Search Queries Driving Traffic to
Nissan.com
weeks Nissan Computer signed up cartrackers.com,
priceline.com, tunes.com, askjeeves.com, directhit.com, safari.com, lycos.com, asimba.com,
ameritech.com, and about.com; by December, 1stopauto.com, hotlinks.com, shabang.com,
fastweb.com, remarq.com, carprices.com, stoneage.com and many other. Also after referring to
alexa5 website analysis service in June 2010 we found that nissan.com is ranked as 25,738 in the
US, also we noticed that most search queries generating traffic to
nissan.com is from Internet users searching for Nissan
representing 38%, nissan.com 29% and Nissan USA 8.5% which
means that most of the users about 75% are directed to
nissan.com owned by Nissan Computer are searching for Nissan
Motors. Also when we analyzed the downstream, which is the
what site users are visiting just after leaving nissan.com, we
found 24% goes to nissanusa, 2.9% nissan.co.uk and also 10.4%
to digest.com which included the story of Nissan Computer and
Nissan Motors. So even this proof that the majority of users who visited nissan.com was
originally searching for Nissan motors and most of them visits digest.com which by all means all
affecting the consumers perspective about Nissan Motors after reading Mr. Uzi point of view.
After analysis people opinion published by Mr. Uzi6on the digest.com people opinion, which
includes more than 10,000 messages, sent to Mr. Uzi about this issue. It is clear that there are
many people are convinced with Mr. Uzi right to use his family name as his business brand. Also
5
Alexa.com, is an online specialized service to analyze online website traffic and users, www.alexa.com
6
Source; http://www.digest.com/people/page_1.shtml

5. many people believes that large corporate are miss using their rights and that it is not fair to
make Mr. Uzi pay such amount of money in courts. Especially that Mr. Uzi is claiming7 that in
March 2008, Nissan Motors attempted to have a federal trademark registration for computers and
computer referrals and that Nissan Motors are doing that because they are preparing another
court action against Nissan Computers. Mr. Uzi is even asking users to take stand, either through
donation, display disggest.com banner on their website or doing other actionable things.
As a conclusion, this case is very critical due to many parameters. First, it is the natural right for
any person to use his family name, which reflects reputation, goodwill and many other things as
his business brand. Second the court and justice system is afraid of having a judgment in which it
could be used in other cases against the normal right to people of using their family names as
their brands. Thirdly and on the other side, it is clear that Nissan Motors brand and market
reputation is affected through the usage of Mr. Uzi. Four, the usage of well-known brands as
Nissan Motors by different non-trademark owner have many negative effects on the original
trade market owner. Finally it worth mentioning that Mr. Uzi is benefiting from this case,
especially through the advertisements which have not been directed to his website if using a
different domain name, so he has a direct profit based on Nissan Motors reputations and brand.
7
Source: http://www.digest.com/Big_Story.php