It’s been 54 years since an atomic blast awakened the slumbering reptilian monster Godzilla, and the fire-breathing, fin-tailed beast has been terrorizing downtown Tokyo ever since — in more than two dozen movies, on television and in comics and cartoons.
But Godzilla is a pussycat compared to the coterie of lawyers and investigators in Los Angeles and Japan who aggressively protect the radioactive behemoth from anyone who dares to appropriate his lizardly image for profit.
Hurling hundreds of lawsuits and takedown notices like so many fireballs, Godzilla’s owner — Toho Co. Ltd — has roasted Hollywood studios, automakers, toy manufacturers, rock bands, book publishers, national food chains, record labels, bloggers, wineries and just about anybody seen as capitalizing on the monster’s unique features, name or theme music. When it comes to policing trademarks and enforcing copyrights in the United States, intellectual property attorneys say Tokyo-based Toho is easily a match for Walt Disney, Fox and Lucasfilm in terms of courthouse zeal.
"I think they have got litigation in their reptilian DNA," says Jonathan Handel, a Hollywood IP lawyer. "They’re afraid that their intellectual property rights will suffer the same fate that Tokyo has in many Godzilla movies."
Nobody is immune. In 2002, Toho stomped on a Cabernet Sauvignon produced by Napa Valley’s Adler Fels Winery. The "Cabzilla" wine — its bottle labeled with a screeching Godzilla toting a glass of red — is no longer on the market. The winery’s inventory was destroyed in a legal settlement(.pdf). In 2003, Toho went after Yankee Stadium vendors for hawking Godzilla wares after the Yankees picked up Japanese baseball slugger Hideki Matsui, who is nicknamed "Godzilla." And this month, the company ordered Arizona rock band Asshole Godzilla to forfeit its internet domain and stop using Godzilla in its name.
Such legal jockeying is paying huge dividends. Toho, a diversified media concern whose income stems from movie theaters, Godzilla and other films, generates millions annually licensing Godzilla music, movies, toys, posters and other tie-ins. The company reported overall profits of 6.4 billion yen, about $66 million, for the half-year period ending Aug. 31.
Douglas Masters, a Chicago attorney charged with defending the intellectual property estate of Elvis Presley, says Toho "has been very aggressive. They take a broad view of their rights."
But the rampage of litigation, real and threatened, isn’t naked aggression. The company’s lawyers say they’re just trying to keep their flagship property from slipping into generic status. For Toho, too much unlicensed or misappropriated Godzilla could irrevocably free the monster from the protection of trademark law.
Read the rest here - http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/11/godzilla-terror/
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