Fred Showker's 60 Second Windows... since 1990
October 2nd, 2002
#148...

Blind Justice
 ... playing in a small town near you

An article "Entrepreneur Fights Nissan on Name" came across our ASSOCIATED PRESS news feed the other day and it conjured some questions that have nagged internet developers for years. It reports on the plight of a small Israeli immigrant computer entrepreneur locked in legal battle with Japanese auto giant Nissan over the rights to the use of the name "Nissan.com."
      In my opinion the story won't have a happy ending. Money giants have a way of getting their way with no regards to the actual laws surrounding the issue. A federal judge in Los Angeles has already that Uzi Nissan's use of his Internet sites was diluting the value of the car company's trademark.
What does "diluting the value of a trademark" have to do with what's right?
      "Nissan" is actually the person's name who originally registered the Nissan.com web address. Now, eight years later the big auto maker claims Uzi is 'cyber squatting'? Hello? Eight years later?
      If Uzi were in the car business it would remind me of the famous Howard Johnson's case. The national restaurant chain wanted a certain Mr. Howard Johnson to close down his small town restaurant in Ohio. Having nothing to do with the giant, Mr. Johnson had named is restaurant with his own, legal, name some years before. The supreme court ruled that indeed Mr. Johnson from Ohio did in fact have legal rights to the name and ruled in his favor. However, he was restricted to using the name in Ohio only. Not a big deal.
      Today the stakes are higher and the playing field is the entire world. But if there is justice in this world, the name belongs to Mr. Nissan.
      I'm reminded of a similar case which infuriates me no end every time I think about it. Some years ago a client hired my graphic design services for some travel advertising. In 1994, I suggested he should open a web site since he was closely related to the tourism industry -- firmly believed that the travel industry would some day be huge on the net.
      He agreed, and since his name was (and still is) "Massanutten Tours, Inc." (Lawfully registered trade name in the Commonwealth of Virginia,) we registered the domain name "Massanutten.com". At the time, a large percentage of his customers were based at a local resort called Massanutten Resort located on a nearby mountain by the same name. (Named long before the white man arrived on the shores of America.) We approached the marketing department of Massanutten Resort and asked if they would be interested in being involved in the Web site "Massanutten.com" offering mutual benefits. "No," they said tersely "We have no interest in the internet."
      I worked for years with the client helping him become a success and growing lots of traffic to his web site. Eventually, he hired his own in-house graphic design and web development and no longer had need for my services. We parted ways but remained friends.
      Then, just recently, I get an email from Massanutten Resort demanding that I remove links to www.Massanutten.com from my web sites because Massanutten Resort has indeed acquired an interest in the internet and the domain. They were the proud winners of an injunction to stop my former client from using the domain. Of course this had no bearing on what I linked to, and being a champion of the under-dog sort of guy, I invited them to sue me. They didn't.
      This is an incredibly unfair and unjust application of blind, corporate justice. There are dozens of cases supporting my client's continued use of the domain. However when the big-money guys get involved the thin line between truth and justice sometimes meanders.
      I told Massanutten Resort that if they have any honor at all, they would drop the case, give the guy fifty-grand for the name, and walk away. They need that name. I've heard nothing about the case since, but http://www.massanutten.com is still down. I can understand prosecuting cybersquatters. But this guy is not a cybersquatter. Nor is Uzi Nissan.
     
Beware: getting locked in a court battle with a deep-pocket corporation, especially in a small town, might suggest suspicion that perhaps several possible situations could be:
  1. the Judge was a used car salesman yesterday
  2. the Judge is an employee of the suing party
  3. the Judge never got to "Corporate Law" in law school
  4. the court clock says it's time for lunch
  5. the corp attorneys arrived in black-out-glass Suburbans driven by thugs
  6. the rightful, legal owner of the name didn't get the right attorney
  7. the rightful, legal owner doesn't have the financial reserves to push the case into an upper court where real justice might be served.

My advice to Mr. Uzi Nissan? Get enough money from Nissan Motor Corp. to retire.

If he can't do that, then SELL the domain to one of those Chinese porno site scalpers for a tidy sum, and move to the BVI. (He can find the scalpers in most any country, like hookers at a country rodeo, drooling at the chance to get Nissan.com!) Once sold, let Nissan Motor Corp. go up against the porno people. (I offered the same remedy to my former client but he declined in fear of what the resort people might do to him for that. Hmmmmm, maybe he's got a point there!)

Want to compare the depth of pockets in Nissan's case:
Nissan Computer Corp., and http://www.nissan.net
Uzi Nissan's site dedicated to the case: http://www.ncchelp.org/
Nissan Motor Corp.: http://www.nissanusa.com

You can read the full October 2, 2002 account at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Dueling-Nissans.html if you've got a NYT subscription.

Fred Showker
 
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Fred Showker is a designer, consultant, writer and speaker. He has published 60-Second Window and DT&G Magazine online since 1990, and is director of The Graphic Design Network which includes The Design & Publishing Center at www.Graphic-Design.com. (1994) He was a co-founder of both The User Group Forum on America Online (1987), The User Group Network at www.User-Groups.net, (1994) and the Designers' Bookshelf (1996) He originally founded Showker Graphic Arts & Design in 1972, has been an avid computer activist and supporter since 1984.

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