Famous domain disputes and stories
The classic domain stories: Uzi Nissan's fight for nissan.com, the theft of sex.com, the man who bought google.com for $12, and how Tuvalu earned from .tv.
Some of the internet's most dramatic stories are about domain names: a man who fought a car giant over his own last name, a domain stolen with a forged letter, and the guy who owned Google.com for one minute. Here are the classics.
Nissan.com: one man vs a car giant
Uzi Nissan, an Israeli-American businessman in North Carolina, registered nissan.com on June 4, 1994 for his computer company, Nissan Computer Corporation, years before Nissan Motor showed interest. When he wouldn't sell, the carmaker sued for trademark infringement, dilution and cybersquatting. The case dragged on for years and nearly ruined him financially, but in 2004 the federal appeals court refused to order the domain transferred. Nissan Motor uses nissanusa.com in the US to this day. After Uzi Nissan died in 2020, his domains were stolen, and a court later ordered nissan.com returned to his family.
Lesson: using your own name for a real business is a legitimate right, even against a global brand.
Sex.com: the stolen domain
Gary Kremen registered sex.com in 1994. In 1995, a con man named Stephen Cohen sent Network Solutions a forged letter and had the domain transferred to himself, then made a fortune from it. Kremen fought for years in court, won the domain back, and was awarded a $65 million judgment against Cohen. The case established that a domain name can be treated as property under the law. The domain later sold for $13 million in 2010.
Lesson: protect your registrar account. Domain theft is real. See domain security.
The man who bought Google.com for $12
On September 29, 2015, former Google employee Sanmay Ved was browsing Google's own domain service and saw google.com listed as available. He bought it for $12 and briefly had control before Google caught the error and cancelled the order. Google rewarded him through its bug bounty program with $6,006.13, a number that spells "Google" if you squint, and doubled it when he gave the money to charity.
Lesson: even the biggest companies can slip on renewals. Auto-renew everything.
Tuvalu and .tv: a country funded by its domain
The tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu was assigned the country code .tv. Because "TV" means television, the ending became valuable worldwide, and leasing its operation to companies has brought the country significant income over the years.
Lesson: two letters can be worth a fortune when they mean something to the world. See ccTLDs.
Amazon vs the Amazon countries
Amazon's seven-year fight with South American governments over the .amazon ending ended with ICANN approval in 2019. Read the Amazon.com domain story.
What these stories teach every domain owner
- Keep your registrar account locked down with two-factor login.
- Turn on auto-renew. Even Google forgot.
- Legitimate use of a name, especially your own, is protected.
- Keep records of when and why you registered a name.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Nissan Motors v. Nissan Computer
- Jalopnik: Uzi Nissan spent 8 years fighting the car company with his name
Questions
Did Uzi Nissan keep nissan.com?
Yes. The courts refused to order the domain transferred to Nissan Motor, and after his death in 2020 a court ordered the stolen domain returned to his family.
Did someone really buy google.com?
Yes. In 2015 Sanmay Ved bought it for $12 through Google's domain service before Google cancelled the order and paid him a bug bounty.