Nissan Vs Nissan Is The Bizarre 18-Year-Old Corporate Battle You've Probably Never Heard Of

This has to rank as one of the worst-handled episodes in modern automotive history, as Nissan Motor attempts to take control of the domain name nissan.com away from Nissan Computer Corporation
Nissan Vs Nissan Is The Bizarre 18-Year-Old Corporate Battle You've Probably Never Heard Of

Nissan UK has dropped a bit of a clanger in tweeting a URL belonging to a man who hates Nissan.

In tweeting about the unveiling of the new Leaf electric hatchback, some unfortunate soul at Nissan tweeted a link to nissan.com/nissan, which is a domain that has been the subject of expensive and deeply acrimonious lawsuits for almost two decades. The tweet was deleted a few hours later, presumably to the sound of panicked screaming.

When the original suit was filed, the R34 Skyline had only just been released
When the original suit was filed, the R34 Skyline had only just been…

In short, nissan.com belongs to one Uzi Nissan, an Israeli man who moved to the USA in 1976, setting up his first business in 1980 servicing non-American cars. He called it Nissan Foreign Car, and since then has set up a number of other businesses using his name, culminating in Nissan Computer Corporation, which registered nissan.com in 1994.

Five years later, Nissan Motor tried to take it from him by force… and (eventually) lost. The saga is still ongoing, with Nissan Motor apparently attempting to trademark the Nissan name in various areas of computing, in what seems to be an attempt to strangle Nissan Computer Corp’s future operations and to force the company into handing over the domain.

While we can’t claim to have done much of the legwork, here, we feel this is such a bizarre story that we’ve got to invite you to look at Jalopnik’s piece here. It’s fascinating, barely believable stuff.

Sponsored Posts

Comments

Seth 3

Whos excited for the new Leaf? I know I am

09/06/2017 - 13:35 |
14 | 6
Tomislav Celić

In reply to by Seth 3

Me too

09/06/2017 - 13:39 |
6 | 6
H5SKB4RU (Returned to CT)

In reply to by Seth 3

I hope you are kidding…

09/06/2017 - 17:49 |
4 | 0
Roadster / Tail Red

I have heard a similar story before…

And that was the story of why Wendy’s isn’t in Europe

09/06/2017 - 13:38 |
78 | 4
SAVAGE DOGG (Ping-Pong Gang) (Corvette Squad)

Nissan Computer Corporation, that must be the GTR part of the company

09/06/2017 - 13:46 |
354 | 4

Why was I thinking this would happen?

09/06/2017 - 21:30 |
10 | 0

As a Nissan fan………

That was fing savage. Nicely done M7+1.

09/07/2017 - 07:27 |
6 | 2

HAHAHAHHAHAHA, that’s so funny. Cheers man

09/08/2017 - 22:27 |
0 | 0
FINNPILOTE (Aston squad)

When i read the first line i thougt: “oh, cool! Maybe its a battle between an old and a new Nissan?” But then i read a little more and realised that it was something incredibly stupid 😂

09/06/2017 - 14:01 |
60 | 0
Olivier (CT's grammar commie)

Reminds me of Apple v. Apple’s case

09/06/2017 - 14:09 |
16 | 0

facebook vs facebook.ru
Basically some russian company bought the facebook.ru domain and now facebook wants it back(for free).

09/06/2017 - 17:35 |
14 | 0
Phil Drift

I’m more interested about that Leaf.

09/06/2017 - 14:31 |
10 | 0
Anonymous

Nissan or Nissan
Pronounced different ways of course

09/06/2017 - 15:04 |
16 | 0
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Doesn’t Nissan mean Japanese Made? I know in china they called Nissan using same characters they use in Japanese and it literally reads “Japanese Manufactured.”

09/06/2017 - 21:08 |
0 | 0
Poke

NISSANCEPTION

09/06/2017 - 15:05 |
10 | 0
David 27

Nissan what are you doing
stahp

give us a new sports car

09/06/2017 - 16:02 |
12 | 0
Anonymous

facebook vs facebook.ru

09/06/2017 - 17:34 |
2 | 0