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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: 2 Nissans
collide on information highway
North Carolina entrepreneur Uzi Nissan has
spent years battling automaker over name
By Ralph
Kisiel
Automotive News / December 16,
2002
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| Uzi Nissan says his business will
suffer now that he can't use nissan.com, which
he has owned since 1994, for commercial
purposes. His case illustrates the hurdles
automakers face when someone else owns an
Internet domain name they believe they should
have. Nissan North America says the businessman
"profited from our brand value." PHOTO: O'NEIL
ARNOLD |
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A few domain
names containing Nissan
4nissan.com: Takes you to Web
site selling this domain name for minimum of
$1,000
nissan-cars.com: Takes you to
Stoneage.com, where consumers can locate and
check pricing of vehicles
nissan-direct.com: Redirects you
to AutoNation's Web site, the nation's largest
dealership group
nissanonline.com: Takes you to
DeltaForce Technologies, a company that offers
consulting and computing technologies
nissans.com: Takes you to
TheWebNetwork.com home page, which has 33 links
to other Web sites
nissanstore.com: Takes you to a
Network Solutions site, a registrar of domain
names
Techbit Name:
Uzi Nissan
Title: President,
Nissan Computer Corp.
Age:
51
Favorite Web sites:
ncchelp.org,
youmaybenext.com
Computer: Nissan
Computer, his own label. "We assemble computers,
so I use my own."
Last book read:
Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty
over Liberalism, by Sean Hannity
IT
publication he reads: Computer Reseller
News
Next big technology trend:
"Definitely the continuation of the growth of
the Internet"
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Uzi Nissan is no stranger to the courtroom.
For the past three years, the 51-year-old
Israeli immigrant has waged a court battle with Nissan
Motor Co. Ltd. and Nissan North America Inc. over the
use of his name.
Or, depending on your point of
view, the automaker's name.
Uzi Nissan has owned
and used the nissan.com domain name since 1994 - he also
owns nissan.net - for his Raleigh, N.C., computer and
Internet services business. And there's the rub. If you
want product information about Nissan vehicles sold in
the United States, you must go to nissanusa.com. But
that's not an address that immediately comes to mind.
Each party contends it should be able to use
nissan.com.
Uzi Nissan says his business will
suffer if he can't use the domain name for commercial
purposes. And the automaker (nissan-global.com) - Nissan
North America spent $536.4 million on measured media
last year, according to Competitive Media Reporting -
views nissan.com as a crucial piece of its brand
strategy. Besides, it argues, Uzi Nissan was making
money off the automaker's name by selling links from his
site to other automotive-related Web sites.
Neil
Greenstein, a San Jose, Calif., attorney representing
Uzi Nissan, says his client is in a David-and-Goliath
battle. "They are a big company, and they were willing
to try to outspend Mr. Nissan and to try to roll him,"
Greenstein says.
Counters Leland Dutcher, senior
counsel for Nissan North America, "He quite shamelessly
profited from our brand value."
Not alone
The Nissan vs. Nissan case is not unique; the
tug of war over a domain name is something many
automakers face. But each has its own toleration level
when it comes to securing domain names (see separate
story, Page 3IT ).
For example, Ford Motor Co.
(ford.com) last year sued National A-1 Advertising Inc.
of Philadelphia to win the right to use lincoln.com. But
the automaker does not have the rights to mercury.com.
That domain name is owned by Mercury Technologies Inc.,
an information technology services company in New York
City.
The Chrysler group (daimlerchrysler.com)
took a different approach last year when it wanted
dodge.com, which was owned by a financial software
company in London. DaimlerChrysler bought the name for
an undisclosed price. Before that, those seeking
information about Dodge vehicles had to go to
4adodge.com.
While many automakers own the
rights to domain names that simply use a vehicle brand
name - such as jeep.com, buick.com and chrysler.com -
there are a plethora of other sites that use an
automotive brand as part of the domain name. Many are
enthusiast sites - for example, vwvortex.com and
forddiesel.com - that draw thousands of unique visitors
each month (see separate story, Page 4IT).
Automakers risk alienating large groups of
potential customers who visit enthusiast sites by
demanding that those sites quit using a brand name. But
that hasn't stopped them from going after the names they
want.
Setback
In the Nissan case,
Uzi Nissan faces this question: How far will he go to
keep nissan.com?
A federal judge in California
ruled Nov. 13 that Uzi Nissan no longer could use
nissan.com - and
nissan.net, for that matter -
for commercial purposes. But the judge did not transfer
the two names to the automaker, its ultimate goal.
Uzi Nissan had been using nissan.com for his
Nissan Computer Corp., a company where customers could
buy desktop computers, servers and networking hardware -
even golf towels. He offered Internet connections and
services through nissan.net.
Uzi Nissan complied
with the court order by pulling the commercial content
from both sites. They now contain only a short statement
saying he has converted the sites to noncommercial use.
"I have to comply with that," Uzi Nissan says.
"If not, I'm going to jail."
The court's
decision leaves open the possibility that the automaker
and Uzi Nissan will reach an out-of-court purchase deal.
But that will depend on how much Nissan Motor Co. and
Nissan North America covet the nissan.com domain name.
Clearly, the automaker understands the value of
the domain names.
"We would have been happier if
the domain names were transferred to Nissan,"
acknowledges Dutcher, the Nissan North America lawyer.
"We believe it is our exclusive right to use Nissan by
itself. But this is certainly the next best thing. We
definitely feel vindicated."
The federal judge
also ruled Nov. 13 that Uzi Nissan could not post on his
two Web sites any advertising, disparaging remarks or
negative commentary about the automaker, or links to
other Web sites containing commercial content or
negative commentary about the automaker.
New
name
Uzi Nissan has registered a new domain
name - nissanpc.com - for his computer company. But he
contends the change makes it more difficult for
customers to find the business.
Uzi Nissan's new
site looks much like his original site, except for the
caption at the top of the page that reads: "Nissan
Motor's Lawsuit Against Us - It can happen to you or
someone you know."
The message is a link to his
ncchelp.org site that he has been using during
the litigation to rally public support for his cause.
Uzi Nissan says he would continue to update
ncchelp.org to keep the issue in front of the
public. "I do not want to hurt my case at this point
more than it is," Uzi Nissan says. "But I can tell you
that I think the district court made a mistake. All I
can say at this point is that there are high
probabilities of an appeal."
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