Legal Dispute Alleges ‘Nissan.com’ Unlawfully Acquired Following Prolonged Legal Battle

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Nearly three decades have passed, and Nissan.com has not been the destination for custom ordering an Altima. Uzi Nissan, a small entrepreneur, has owned the website since 1994, establishing it to showcase his numerous small enterprises before drawing the interest of Nissan Motor Corporation. In a well-known legal battle that spanned over ten years, the corporation attempted to seize it from him but ultimately lost. However, following Uzi’s demise in 2020, control of his website has purportedly been taken by an unknown individual, prompting the Nissan family to escalate the matter in court once more.

These details emerge from a lawsuit filed by Uzi Nissan’s estate in a federal court in Virginia this summer against the unidentified perpetrator, with ongoing developments and fresh motions as recently as last week. The lawsuit aims to reclaim Nissan.com and Nissan.net for the family, requesting the domains be transferred from current registrar GKG.net to GoDaddy.com, alongside claims for damages and legal expenses incurred.

If the intricate backstory is unfamiliar to you, Uzi Nissan was a serial entrepreneur who utilized his name for a variety of ventures dating back to 1980. In 1994, he registered the domains Nissan.com and Nissan.net for his range of businesses that included automotive service, computer, and import-export enterprises.

It was not until 1999, amid the Dotcom Bubble, that Nissan Motor Corporation, previously known as Datsun in the U.S. since 1981, expressed an interest in the domain. At that juncture, the company launched an endeavor to claim Uzi’s domain names, accusing him of domain squatting and trademark dilution. However, after a litigation saga that Uzi estimated cost him over $3 million, the court ruled in favor of the small businessman. Consequently, to this day, Nissan Motor’s U.S. website remains nissanusa.com.

Nissan.com homepage circa December 21, 2009

Following Uzi Nissan’s passing in 2020, his estate retained ownership of both domains, continuing to cover registration expenses with host and registrar GKG.net. As stated by Uzi’s family in a court submission, the domain registration was neither permitted to lapse nor transfer ownership.

Subsequent to Uzi’s demise, at an unspecified time, his family discovered that his GKG.net domain management account lacked control over Nissan.com or Nissan.net. The Nissan family asserts that an individual gained access to Uzi’s account and transferred domain control, claiming they had received “communications” from someone posing as Mr. Nissan’s family members and attempting to sell the domain names. The estate noted that GKG.net did not contest, challenge, or question the unauthorized transfer of the domains, but declined to aid in their retrieval or disclose the identity of the culprit.

The precise timing of the domain transfer remains unclear, with Nissan.com periodically going offline post-2020 based on Internet Archive snapshots. However, by June 2023, the Nissan.com homepage exhibited a modified “contact us” page redirecting queries to an email address. In a filing dated June 26, the Nissan family mentioned that the websites might steer consumers to an image of the previous NISSAN.COM and NISSAN.NET sites in a potential effort to avert any appearance of impropriety.

nissan-site-suit-complaint.pdfDownload

By September, Nissan.com showcased an advertisement for media tech firm Auddia endorsing an AI-driven internet radio ad service. The involvement of Auddia in the domain’s appropriation remains uncertain, with the company failing to respond to an email from The Drive seeking information at the time of publication. Notably, as of at least October 4, the website had again gone offline.

This latest twist adds to the already bizarre narrative that unfolded during the pioneering days of the internet—and as indicated by the lawsuit, it appears far from concluded.

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