Type in the address www.nissan.com and you will not get Nissan Motors of Japan or even Nissan USA (such is America's clout that many foreign car companies use their .com domains to host their U.S. homepages). Instead, you will find a website owned and operated by one Uzi Nissan of Nissan Computer Corporation.

The two companies and their commercial interests were destined to meet due to their mutual namesakes. And meet they did, in the courtroom.

In 1999, Big Nissan sued little Nissan for $10 million in damages relating to what the carmaker's lawyers saw as trademark infringement and cyber-squatting. Among the specific grievances were claims that nissan.com posted car advertisements on its site.

Mr. Nissan insisted that when he registered his site in 1994, he had been using his name since the days when Nissan called itself Datsun and therefore should not have to lose his domain to the larger business entity.

The case went through the appeals process from court to court for six years until it finally reached the United States supreme court in 1995. The Supreme Court upheld an earlier Appeals Court decision that permitted Mr. Nissan to keep his website.

For now, David wins. Goliath loses.