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Using Your Own Name May Be Infringement, Part 2
phillymjs writes "We're probably all familiar with Uzi Nissan and his fight to keep his nissan.com domain name from the clutches of Nissan Motors. Well, more same-name idiocy came to light today-- the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that their staff music writer, Bill Wyman, has received a cease-and-desist letter from lawyers representing former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, for "a seriously misleading and, arguably, an intentional, unauthorized exploitation of our client's name, goodwill and publicity value."
It should be interesting to see how this one plays out, because Bill Wyman the musician was born William George Perks and changed his name to Bill Wyman in 1964. Journalist Bill Wyman was given that name at his birth in 1961."
...but Mr. Nissan has been running Nissan Computers from before Datsun Motors changed its name to Nissan Motors.
"Communism is like having one [local] phone company " - Lenny Bruce
Some people's children...
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
Please, RTFA before you post...
This has NOTHING to do with cyberspace. Bill Wyman was simply WRITING ARTICLES using his own name. He didn't try to register the name on the internet -- at least not according to the article.
I admit that the slashdot preview doesn't make this clear, but thats why you should RTFA.
A Cease and Desist may just be a letter, but so is a "Your rent / mortgage payment / credit card bill is late" statement.
In practice the average American citizen has been increasely pushed away from dealing with the legal system. It's been made perfectly clear to him that he isn't smart enough to deal with it, that he needs an expensive lawyer to deal with it in any way, and that even if he is right that he can be crushed by legal fees. Your average citizen is scared of the legal system, and that's a problem. Lawyers use this fact to bully average people with Cease and Desist letters. "I can't afford a lawyer to fight this, so I'll have to do what it says, even though they are wrong."
Maybe these scum-sucking lawyers are but a small fraction of the total lawyer population. Perhaps 99% of all lawyers on ethical beings dedicated to the spirit of the law. But that remaining small fraction is doing a lot of harm to the United States.
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For those not familiar with the Nissan issue - Uzi Nissan has a real company named Nissan Computers, which he started several years before the Internet "took off", IIRC in 1991. Technically, he even registered his domain before the internet "took off", IIRC in 1994. "Nissan" is, and has been, his family name for many generations (whereas the other Nissan changed it's name from Datsun a couple decades ago).
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SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm all for mocking the Yanks, even when their government is tramping around threatening to level everyone they don't like, but it should be noted that Bill Wyman is, in fact, English.
AFAICT, Bill Wyman the journalist has no website to call his own. I have no idea why this was posted under the Internet category, because I submitted it under News.
Anyway, the lawyers are objecting to Bill Wyman the journalist using his given name on the byline of the articles he writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (and, I suppose, any other publication for which he writes). Not because he owns any domain name relating to the name Bill Wyman.
This action strikes me as even more outlandish and insidious than anything the big corporations have done over real or alleged domain squatting. That's why I submitted the article.
~Philly
The Atlanta Journal-Courier's Bill Wyman, who has regularly covered Rolling Stones news, wrote an article in the AJC about some of the ban's old albums. The band's lawyer decided (not unreasonably, I guess) that readers would think bassist Bill Wyman had written the piece, and demanded that a) if a journalist was calling himself Bill Wyman to cover Rolling Stones topics, he stop and b) if someone genuinely had that name, he should make that clear. The story hints that the lableing demand would extend to all work by the writer, but it's not clear that that's so.
Whatever the legal merits of this case, it has nothing to do with a domain name.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
According to udpates at the bottom of this page, things aren't going so well for Uzi Nissan.
The latest:
September 2002
The previous court rulings did not end this case. Nissan Motors filed a second Motion for Summary Judgment trying (and has been successful) to get the Court to deprive me of the right to a jury trial on October 15, 2002. The Court, much to my surprise, changed its attitude on this issue and:
1. Changed the relevant date for "fame" from 1991 to 1994.
2. Found that no reasonable jury could find that Nissan was not famous by 1994.
3. Found that Nissan Computer and The Internet Center diluted Nissan Motor's trademark.
4. Found that the publication of information about this lawsuit, the comments made by many people -- on this www.ncchelp.org and my media campaign to bring this issue to the public, actually -- tarnished Nissan Motor's trademark.
Many legal experts view our case, not as a "law-breaking" case, but as a "law-making" case. The Court indicated during the hearing on this motion that certain aspects of this case may be creating new law as well.
The trial date has thus been taken off calendar and Nissan Motor is now asking the Court to take away my domain name from me entirely. We expect a ruling on this motion some time in November this year. Our legal team is evaluating our options, which evaluation can not be completed until we know the final ruling by the Court. We believe that the potential loss of our domain name in this fashion may set the wrong precedent for future cases and will open the door for any deep-pocket corporation to do the same. This may become "the law of the land" and may affect many others in a similar situation, it could affect you or someone you know.
This case received the attention of CBS Evening News, and has been looked at by other news agencies that have not yet published stories about it. Public attention to this type of corporate behavior is most important to get the issues properly debated. Your emails were very successful in CBS Evening News' decision to run a short story on this case. We are asking for your continued and crucial support by sending an email to the media and stating the importance of bringing these facts to the public. Remember that it was Public Opinion and Awareness that ended the Soviet Union, not missiles. Together we can make a difference.
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SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TM
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For a full treatment of Nissan history, click on this link.
To summarize, the first companies that would eventually become Nissan started in 1911. After a series of mergers, changed company names, and revisted models, they started selling cars with the Datsun name in 1932. However, the company was never known as Datsun Motors. Datsun was just the brand name of their cards, from "son of DAT." The company has been called Nissan Motors ever since the merger between DAT Automobile Manufacturing Company and Nihon Sangyo, another pre-existing automobile manufacturer.
Some other juicy bits that the enthusiast site I've linked to doesn't go well into is the fact that Nissan was the largest of the "new zaibatsu" and profitted quite considerably from the rape of Manchuria by the Japanese in the 1930s. The older zaibatsu, like Mitsui, Sumitomo, and Mitsubishi were all tightly controlled by greedy single families who weren't well liked by the wartime government. Companies like Nissan who were owned by multiple owners were treated more favorably and got the sweeter deals in exploiting the newly conquered Japanese territories.
Also, the website glosses over the labor struggles of the 1950s in Japan. Nissan was a "innovator" in breaking their unions and was one of the first companies to create a company-created union that would provide the model for all modern Japanese labor unions. Modern Japanese labor unions are all company (not trade) specific and are essentially a secondary tier of management over the workers used to keep them in line and in harmony with company desires, and striking is no longer allowed. Though as far as I know, Nissan's 100-day strike was very bloodless compared to many of the other labor struggles during the period, it was the pioneer in establishing the crippled system that exists today in Japan.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
There was a fairly good and locally well-known greek restaurant near where I grew up known as the "Olympic Flame". It was in the same location for over 50 years, doing quite well.
Then one day the IOC decides to trademark the "Olympics", or more succinctly, some dipshit judge decides to allow them to trademark a phrase and symbols that are thousands of years old.
A name change was forced - and the public, not seeing the 'Olympic Flame' when they drove by, assumed it had closed. People stopped coming in droves, and eventually it was forced to close.
I also recall a news story back home about a guy with the (unfortunate) name of Donald Duck. He was actually 10 years older than the cartoon character. He was like in his 70s and a decorated vet when he starts getting harassing C&D letters from Disney.
I guess the only point is that this bullshit happens all the time, you don't have to look far to see it.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
So, how many of you are in danger of losing your names like this?
Sadly, everyone who can't afford to hire a large aggressive law firm I imagine
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
Uzi is a Hebrew word that means, "my strength". King David used it is Psalms.
Nissan, is the name of the sixth Jewish month of the year. The origins of it came from Babylon. So is actually isn't Hebrew and much as it is Babylonian.
Have you read my journal today?
I would guess that if you are using nissan.com as the homepage for Nissan Computers, a small business run by Uzi Nissan, you have every right to use nissan.com. You did read the article, didn't you?
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Complexity is Easy. Simplicity is Hard.