Nissan Motors v. Nissan Computer

Nissan Motors v. Nissan Computer was a lengthy court case between the two parties over use of the name Nissan and the domain name nissan.com.[2] The case has received national attention in the U.S.[3][4][5]

Nissan Motors v. Nissan Computer
CourtUnited States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Full case nameNissan Motor Co., a Japanese corporation;  Nissan North America, Inc., a California corporation, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Nissan Computer Corporation, a North Carolina corporation;  The Internet Center Inc., a North Carolina corporation, Defendants-Appellees.
DecidedAugust 6, 2004 (2004-08-06)[1]
Court membership
Judges sittingStephen S. Trott
Pamela Ann Rymer
Sidney Runyan Thomas

Background

Nissan Motor Company

Beginning in the late 1970s, Datsun began progressively fitting its cars with small "Nissan" and "Datsun by Nissan" badges. The company eventually changed its branding at 1,100 Datsun dealerships. In autumn 1981, Datsun announced that its name would be changed in the United States.[6] Between 1982 and 1986, the company transitioned from its "Datsun, We Are Driven!" to its "The Name is Nissan" campaign.[7] Five years after the name change program was over, cars in some export markets continued to display badges bearing both names and Datsun still remained more familiar than Nissan.[7][8]

Uzi Nissan

In 1980, Uzi Nissan founded Nissan Foreign Car, an automobile service, in Raleigh, North Carolina.[9][10] In 1987, Uzi Nissan founded Nissan International, Ltd, an import/export company that traded primarily in heavy equipment and computers.[11] On 14 May 1991, Uzi Nissan founded Nissan Computer Corporation, which provides sales and service of personal computers, servers, and computer parts, as well as internet hosting and development. Nissan Computer registered nissan.com for its use on 4 June 1994, five years prior to Nissan Motor Corporation's interest in the domain.[10][2]

In July 2020, Uzi Nissan died of complications from COVID-19.[12]

Case

Nissan Motors considered Nissan Computer's use of the name to be trademark dilution, and laid claim to the domain by alleging cyber squatting. However, Nissan Computer was named after its owner, Uzi Nissan.[13][14][15] Following the outcome of the case, Nissan Motors uses the name nissanusa.com for its U.S. website.[16]

References
  1. "NISSAN MOTOR CO v. NISSAN COMPUTER CORPORATION | FindLaw". Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  2. Anderson, Mark K. (3 January 2001). "Who Gets to Drive Nissan.com?". Wired. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  3. Leonard, Andrew (3 June 2002). "Nissan vs. Nissan". Salon. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  4. "Nissan vs. Nissan". IEEE Spectrum Careers. Archived from the original on 2 December 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2006.
  5. "Nissan Motor Co. v. Nissan Computer Corp., and the Evolving Law of Trademark Dilution on the Internet". TrademarkDilution.com. Retrieved 24 May 2006.
  6. Aaker, David A. Managing Brand Equity : Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name, New York: The Free Press, 1991 ISBN 0-02-900101-3 Chapter 3, Pg. 57
  7. What's in a name? Archived 8 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine - ZCCA
  8. Aaker, David A. Managing Brand Equity : Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name, New York: The Free Press, 1991 ISBN 0-02-900101-3 Chapter 3, Pg. 56
  9. Nissan, Uzi. "Nissan Foreign Car". Digest.com. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  10. Nissan, Uzi. "Nissan Motor vs. Nissan Computer". Digest.com. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  11. Nissan, Uzi. "Nissan International". Digest.com. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  12. Westbrook, Justin T. (28 July 2020). "Uzi Nissan, Internet Domain Owner Who Fought Nissan In Court For A Decade, Has Died Of Covid-19". Jalopnik. G/O Media Group. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  13. "Nissan Motor vs. Nissan Computer" (PDF). citizen.org. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  14. A., Daniel (9 April 2011). "Why Nissan.com Isn't a Car Website". Yale Law & Technology. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  15. "Nissan Motor vs. Nissan Computer". Nissan Computer Corporation. Retrieved 24 May 2006.
  16. "Nissan USA". Retrieved 11 February 2014.

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