I’ve never been a big fan of Davezilla. Just never floated my boat, and that’s what makes a horse race and all that.
But, c’mon, folks, let’s get real. Corporate Suits of Toho Co., Ltd., why don’t you cut the guy some slack. Slapping him with a Cease-and-Desist letter because he’s named his site “Davezilla” and you own the copyright to “Godzilla” does not pass the horse laugh test.
Please be advised that your use of the GODZILLA mark … confuses consumers and the public into believing that your “GODZILLA” character originates from Toho ….
No, it doesn’t.
Moveover, your use of the “ZILLA” formative along with imagery assocated with GODZILLA is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the “DAVEZILLA.COM” website is either assocated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client ….
Only if those users are dunderheads. And Toho should know better.
Dave declines to back down. Good for him.
Doubtless we will soon see efforts to extend Toho’s copyright another 50 years, too. (Mutter mutter mutter …)
But who holds the trademark for ‘God’? Did Toho get that cleared by the Original Owner? ^_-
I believe (and I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong) the original in Japanese is Gojiru, which can be easily mangled through Japanglish into Godzilla.
I understand folks needing to vigorously protect their copyrights, but the Toho folks don’t realize that the minor proliferation of “-zilla” names only helps keep the original in the public’s mind, something that they’ve not been too successful in doing otherwise.