The man who created Nissan.com for his small business beat the global carmaker’s $10M bid to take it

Uzi Nissan was a man who owned a small, eponymous computer company, but in a legal battle that spanned the better part of a decade, he declined a whopping $10 million from the automakers for his nissan.com domain.

Nissan is among the biggest-selling car brands in the world.

But all of its business is conducted from regional domains, as one small business took control of ‘nissan.com’ some 30 years ago.

Throughout the noughties, the gargantuan brand fought tooth and nail to get the website address, but not even a bid of $10 million could persuade one man to give up his business hub.

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How Uzi Nissan won ten years of court cases for a $10m domain name

Back when the internet was fresh, few people had the foresight to take advantage of domain names. But those who did got paid handsomely.

Such as the former Google employee who bought google.com for $12 and made a small fortune, only to give it all to charity.

On the more lucrative side, Lamborghini offered the lambo.com owner $75 million.

Somewhere in the middle is Uzi Nissan.

Back in 1994, the Israeli-American man bought the domain for a few cents and began running his self-named company, Nissan Computers, from it.

More recently, the page hit 500,000 views in a month as it is often confused with the car manufacturer, and Nissan Motors wanted their traffic back.

Over a ten-year legal battle, Uzi Nissan refused to hand over the website address and was offered $10 million and the nissancomputers.com address in exchange.

However, establishing customers on the site and wanting to take advantage of the boosted readers, the man refused any offer put on the table.

In typical corporate fashion, the company then sued the small man for the same amount, claiming that he was ‘squatting’.

‘Squatting’ is the legal term for holding a trademarked name in hopes of earning huge payoffs or damaging the brand with hurtful content.

The Nissan vs Nissan court case went on for 10 long years, with Uzi often winning but leaving the door open to new appeals.

The businessman ended up paying $3 million of his own money in legal fees over the term, but held off all efforts from the Japanese manufacturer.

To this day, the website is in his family’s ownership.

Nissan.com is now dedicated to a US businessman

Nowadays, the domain is an everlasting memorial to Uzi Nissan, who passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everyone who knew Uzi would say that he would always go out of his way to care for his loved ones. He is sorely missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him,” the site says.

As for Nissan itself, the company hasn’t missed out on much without the domain.

The Japanese carmaker is continuing to release new and exciting cars on its regional pages without a second thought to the legal saga that began 20 years ago.

Nissan might have fallen down the pecking order slightly in the 2020s, but with a new dawn of EVs landing, it could soon be the powerhouse figure it once was, even without a full fleet of web domains.

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