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Trademarkzilla Strikes Again: Complains That Fingerzilla May Confuse People Into Thinking It's Godzilla

from the giving-it-the-finger dept

Wed, Apr 27th 2011 7:06pm — Mike Masnick

Toho, the company that holds the rights to "Godzilla" is somewhat notorious for enforcing its rights on others for daring to use the suffix "zilla." It's now targeting a two man mobile app development firm for its Fingerzilla game, with particular concerns about the imagery used to promote the game:

Because, apparently, Toho can't tell a finger from its own monster. The company behind Fingerzilla, Inert Soap, notes that this is just a silly parody of Godzilla. Of course, fighting Godzilla (well, somewhat literally) probably isn't much fun for a small company, even if it wants to give Toho the finger...

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Filed Under: fingerzilla, godzilla, trademark
Companies: inert soap, toho

19 Comments

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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 27 Apr 2011 @ 7:25pm

How's Mozilla holding up?
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- Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 27 Apr 2011 @ 7:28pm
  
  Re: How's Mozilla holding up?
  There's more but I hit the wrong key.
  
  They're concerned with the imagery? It seems like they're more concerned with five letters, two of which are the same.
  
  I find the imagery more disturbing than confusing. I can imagine hollering at my kids, "Don't play with Fingerzilla! You don't know where he's been!"
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2011 @ 8:01pm

Slow news day, Mike?
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- fogbugzd (profile), 27 Apr 2011 @ 8:14pm
  
  Re:
  Slow trolling day, AC?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2011 @ 8:25pm
  
  Re:
  prick
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Bob Vila, 27 Apr 2011 @ 9:33pm
  
  Re:
  Why are the trolls on this blog on a first name basis with Mike Masnick?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2011 @ 11:51pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Actually, some of them prefer to call him "The Masnick."
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- Mike Masnick (profile), 27 Apr 2011 @ 10:45pm
  
  Re:
  Slow news day, Mike?
  
  Not at all, actually. Why do you ask?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 28 Apr 2011 @ 1:29am
  
  Re:
  Paytard.
  
  Pathetic. Troll harder.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- The eejit (profile), 28 Apr 2011 @ 1:29am
  
  Re:
  Slow brain day?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 28 Apr 2011 @ 3:25am
  
  Re:
  Hum...nope. After taking a spin on the LHC, I've concluded that time is still flowing as usual: it goes real fast when you are having fun, but slows to a crawl when you're at work or waiting in line.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 28 Apr 2011 @ 10:03am
  
  Re:
  Why don't you Google "Cockzilla"? I haven't, and don't personally want to...but I know that it must exist.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 27 Apr 2011 @ 8:42pm

�Godzilla� Isn�t Even The Right Name ...
... the original monster�s name was �Gojira�.
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Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 28 Apr 2011 @ 1:47am

I always thought.....
... that Godzilla was a sort of phonetic translation of a name of a Japanese monster from folklore (large dinosaur/reptilian beasty famous for eating cities). Can you have a trademark on that sort of thing? Or is this company getting all Disney?

Either way their trademark can't be *that* strong anyway as I'd never have associated all the things I've ever seen called "Godzilla" (a fair few if I think about it) with a single company, never mind any of the myriad other "xxx-zilla" products.
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Hiiragi Kagami (profile), 28 Apr 2011 @ 3:30am

I can tell Mike was just dying to write this article. The second he saw the word "finger"...

I chuckled, so it was worth it.
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lavi d (profile), 28 Apr 2011 @ 6:07am

Davezilla

Back in 2002, a guy with a popular blog fought the monster and won.

Curiously, all references to the incident have been scrubbed from the site, but Google remembers all
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weneedhelp (profile), 28 Apr 2011 @ 10:54am

Love that game.
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Ken, 28 Apr 2011 @ 8:19pm

Soon they will object to anyone having the term God in their name as well.
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Pixelation, 28 Apr 2011 @ 8:47pm

The big question
Will they give Toho the "finger"?
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