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Godzilla Getting Ready to Stomp Mozilla?
mrBlond writes: "Doing the rounds: Seems like Toho [jp], 'the owner of all rights in and to the trademark and service mark GODZILLA [jp]
and the GODZILLA characters,' is coming down on Davezilla for use of 'zilla' in his domain name and his dragon logo, to set a precedent before attacking Mozilla."
mothra will protect us
Wow, everyone is right. Slashdot is starting to become a comment board for the register.
This isnt really accurate... Im pretty sure....
Everyday You see me is the worst day of my life -Office Space
Davezilla seems to clearly rely on familiarity with Toho's Godzilla trademark and the look of the Godzilla character. Mozilla's gone even farther.
Lesson to be learned: Be original, don't use others' ideas without their permission.
Whoops, forgot, this is Thiefdot, where if it's a Big Bad Corporation, it's ok to steal ideas from it...
While I love mozilla and the logo is kick-ass...
It's hard to argue with this.. it does seem to be pretty blatant... hopefully they can come to an agreement...
Don't Tread on Me
A godzilla govorilla
Ty mozilla ne gorilla
A bolshaya govorilla!
Sun, 11 August, 2002
Goodbye little dragon guy!
[Blog] - Davezilla @ 07:07:43 pm
re: DAVEZILLA.COM
Dear Mr. Linabury:
We represent Toho Co., Ltd ("Toho") in intellectual property matters. Toho is the owner of all rights in and to the trademark and service mark GODZILLA and the GODZILLA characters. In addition, the name "GODZILLA" and the likeness of Toho's GODZILLA character are federally registered trademarks belonging to Toho. Copies of Toho's U.S. Registrations for GODZILLA and the GODZILLA character image are enclosed.
[Omitted long, dull paragraph about the history of Toho...]
It has come to our attention that you have incorporated the "ZILLA" portion of our client's GODZILLA marks in the name of your "DAVEZILLA.COM" domain name, and that you have included a "reptile-like" character as well as a "monster-like" character, which you refer to as "GODZILLA", on your website accesible through "DAVEZILLA.COM." Please be advised that your use of the GODZILLA mark constitutes a trademark infringement and confuses consumers and the public into believing that your "GODZILLA" character originates from Toho, which it does not. Moreover, your use of the "ZILLA" formative along with imagery associated with GODZILLA is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the "DAVEZILLA.COM" website is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client, and demonstrates an attempt by you to trade on the goodwill built up by our client. As such, we request that you remove the objectionable imagery and reference to GODZILLA from your website to eliminate any likelihood of confusion and posibility of an inaccurate affiliation with Toho and GODZILLA.
We look forward to receiving your prompt reply, with a statement of your intentions, no later than August 16, 2002. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Very truly yours,
SEYFARTH SHAW
Jill A. Jacobs
Wow. Guess the little dragon at the top has to go bye-bye. At least they are letting me keep the domain name. A few inaccuracies: I have, until today, never mentioned Godzilla, nor do I have any imagery of him on this site. Nor do I refer to my logo as Godzilla. It's always been, "That little dragon guy." Could have been a lot worse. Expect a new no changes to the banner and changes a tweak to the colophon. I'm not giving in.
What's next? Microsoft suing anyone with the words "Micro" or "Soft" in the name.
On a related note, God decides to sue Toho for using the word "God" without His permission.
Looks like someone woke up Monster Island!
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
...but the term "Mozilla" has been associated with Netscape for a long, long time, even before the open source project. In fact, you're likely to see "Mozilla" in most user agent strings, even from non-Netscape browsers.
pooptruck
Godzilla vs. Davezilla vs. Mozilla? When is that coming out on DVD? Can I preorder it from Amazon.com? I hope they sub it. I hate dubs. By the way, I've already got some bootleg resin kits of all 3 monsters, if anyone is interested.
That's fuckedzilla. Izilla hopezilla theyzilla don'tzilla comezilla afterzilla mezilla.
Why do you feel the need to slashdot the Internet Wayback Machine? It's slow enough as it is.
By their claim, Microsoft would be able to file suit against Microtek, Micron, Micromedia, Microware, ... I can see where there is an argument against the reptilian logo, but to parse letters in a non-profit project's title goes too far.
Godzilla vs Mozilla!
Complete with terrible english dubbing.
Rent-A-Zilla!
In other news, God is suing Toho for for appropriating his name into the name of their monster.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
This is one of the reasons there's no longer a green Mozilla logo, nor can you buy Mozilla dolls anymore. The owners of godzilla came down on Mozilla long ago.
joe.
I was in the middle of typing a sensible and well thought out reply about the extent to which the Godzilla trademark should be protected from ripp-offs. Then I realized that the situation can better be described in one sentence.
What a Dick!
Oh, and thanks for pointing out that mozilla.org is mozilla, cute.
I don't see how anyone could be confused - Godzilla attacked Tokyo, while Mozilla is going after Redmond, WA.
"Good things don't end with eum, they end with mania or teria." - H. Simpson
I doubt anybody would get the names Mozilla and Godzilla confused
Too many zeros, not enough ones
Mozilla has been used for a very very long time. Isn't it too late for those godzilla guys to protect thier trademark?
Godzirra is coming!
He's got a monster 528 cubic inch motor in his Buick. It runs the 1/4 mile in under 10.2 seconds on street tires.
He calls the car "Buzilla".
Personally, I think he should have a right to; the car is, after all, a monster.
- Freed
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." -Turkish Proverb
Mozilla's been around for what, about 4 years? If this company sat around for that long without defending their trademark, too bad! Any rational, impartial judge (if they exist) would throw this out of court.
Can they even do this? I wasn't aware you could sue someone for using a mark that was partially similar to your own trademark.
Secondly, there have been a lot of -zilla named things in the past. Did the owner of this trademark try to enforce it then? Or when Davezilla.com was registered back in 1999? Or when the Mozilla name first came into use by Netscape and, later, the Mozilla project? It seems to me that "zilla" is pretty diluted and was not enforced in a timely fashion.
I'm certainly no trademark law expert, but this whole thing just screams of silliness to me... But then again, most trademark suits do.
"Wow, you're like some kind of superhero able to ward off happiness and success at every turn."
-- Ryan Stiles
I feel so sorry for this poor company. Having one of their trademarks lightly referenced in the context of the open source vs. Microsoft battle. Thus keeping the mark in front of not only geeks, but a fair amount of the mainstream as well. Thereby increasing interest in their Godzilla properties, and generally entrenching the -zilla suffix in the not only english, but other languages as well.
It must be terrible for them, all that free publicity.
Of course, to retain control of the trademark it might be necessary to come to some licensing agreement, but trying to stamp out the use of -zilla is a serious case of shooting oneself in the foot. Hormel wised up about Spam; you'd think these folks would learn from that example.
Cheers
-b
I wish that people who need money would do something creative with their trademark(s) instead of spending all of their time trying to do something as uncreative as sueing someone who is both doing no harm to them and doing something creative.
As far as the Mozilla part goes, what cave was Godzilla sleeping in that he just became aware of it?
I wonder if BOC is next, or is that how they fell of the face of the earth?
Slightly off-topic (or maybe not), can anyone tell me how I can get Mozilla for Windows to display the Japanese characters?
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
What's next? Yahoo! coming down on Philip J. "Pud" Kaplan (of FuckedCompany.com fame), claiming that his new Yahotties! site somehow infringes on their trademark?
Can that be far behind?
The gecko from Geico insurance is getting hassled again by email.
First the lawyers go after after the domain name, now his hosting company/ISP is going to get tweaked about the bandwidth-using slashdotting....
Godzilla said
You are mozilla, not a gorilla
The big one talked.
Can You please insert some more links into your article. on slashdot?
I don't think I can possibly do all the background research myself.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
Mozilla wasn't formed from godzilla, maybe the logo at the most. It came from "Mosaic Killer" or Moz-illa.
should go after Toho for using the word "God" in Godzilla without permission from His Holiness.
Mozilla is a clear ripoff of Godzilla. Where do they get off?
It seems that davezillas server is saying "No Slashzilla, no!!!!"
I guess my company is next. Our billing software is titled billzilla.
...we need Robert Smith of The Cure to save us now. Nothing like a good ol' roshambo to settle this dispute.
I recommend the Mozilla project change its mascot to another cute character ...
Something more approachable, but still computer related ... a mouse would do nicely...
Since the original name was derived from Mosaic, and the NCSA project is shelved and Spyglass is no more, "Mosaic Mouse" would do nicely...
OK, sing it with me...
o/~ Join us now and share the software
For the most part, however, I doubt that people would think that dave was endorsed by the Godzilla trademark owners. Less so, Mozilla which doesn't actually use the "Godzilla" name. There's nothing wrong with parody, or flattery by mimicry. I don't think that there's much reason for fear, as long as the Mozilla group doesn't try to branch into the horror-movie genre.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I don't know about davezilla, but mozilla should be ok. IANAL, But I thought trademarks had to be agressively defended to "stay fresh" - mozilla.org has been around since 1998 (at least), and the netscape browser's been called mozilla for longer than that, in public. I'd say letting it slide for 4+ years is an indication that they have *not* been defending this trademark, at least in this arena...
-- the Ogre
Here is the text from Davezilla.com:
Sun, 11 August, 2002
Goodbye little dragon guy!
[Blog] - Davezilla @ 07:07:43 pm
re: DAVEZILLA.COM
Dear Mr. Linabury:
We represent Toho Co., Ltd ("Toho") in intellectual property matters. Toho is the owner of all rights in and to the trademark and service mark GODZILLA and the GODZILLA characters. In addition, the name "GODZILLA" and the likeness of Toho's GODZILLA character are federally registered trademarks belonging to Toho. Copies of Toho's U.S. Registrations for GODZILLA and the GODZILLA character image are enclosed.
[Omitted long, dull paragraph about the history of Toho...]
It has come to our attention that you have incorporated the "ZILLA" portion of our client's GODZILLA marks in the name of your "DAVEZILLA.COM" domain name, and that you have included a "reptile-like" character as well as a "monster-like" character, which you refer to as "GODZILLA", on your website accesible through "DAVEZILLA.COM." Please be advised that your use of the GODZILLA mark constitutes a trademark infringement and confuses consumers and the public into believing that your "GODZILLA" character originates from Toho, which it does not. Moreover, your use of the "ZILLA" formative along with imagery associated with GODZILLA is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the "DAVEZILLA.COM" website is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client, and demonstrates an attempt by you to trade on the goodwill built up by our client. As such, we request that you remove the objectionable imagery and reference to GODZILLA from your website to eliminate any likelihood of confusion and posibility of an inaccurate affiliation with Toho and GODZILLA.
We look forward to receiving your prompt reply, with a statement of your intentions, no later than August 16, 2002. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Very truly yours,
SEYFARTH SHAW
Jill A. Jacobs
Wow. Guess the little dragon at the top has to go bye-bye. At least they are letting me keep the domain name. A few inaccuracies: I have, until today, never mentioned Godzilla, nor do I have any imagery of him on this site. Nor do I refer to my logo as Godzilla. It's always been. "That little dragon guy." Could have been a lot worse. Expect a new banner this week and changes to the colophon.
I thought the Japaneses are cool peps.
I always thought godzilla was old japanesse methology? Is it really a recent creation of a corperation? Or did someone at the trademark office just not care.
I can see, seeing how Mozilla is in the film business and the action figure business and generally in competition with Godzilla, that yeah, they have some sort of case here. Sure, guys.
Another example of how copyrighting has gone way to far. Seriously, do you think anybody really associates mozilla with godzilla, or think that it has any sort of affiliation with it? What does it really matter? Just another corporation trying to sue the little guy for a buck.
Can they even do this? I wasn't aware you could sue someone for using a mark that was partially similar to your own trademark.
I don't know, but you can definately sue for using a mark which is completely similar and partially exact.
The only thing stupider than this lawsuit are the thousands of slashdot readers who are trying to make teh Funny.
Slashdot getting ready to stomp davezilla.com
Every Xvale and Xville will sue each other claiming they were the first with the suffix... York will take New York to court for infringing on it's originally suffix...
And ING Investments will charge a royalty to everyone using "ing" at the end of a word (shit, I guess I owe them for 3 payments already!).
The plaintiffs should just claim their referencing the plant or the disease!
"1984" was ment to be a warning, not a guidebook. You hear that Kim Jong-il!? BushCo?!
Slashdotted approx 20020813 1900UTC. We hardly knew thee.
-- 4 8 15 16 23 42
My nick is in trouble.
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?
I see the problem if Davezilla or Mozilla were making cheesy monster movies, but in a totally unrelated industry, what's the complaint?
There goes my idea for Godzilla Demolition, Inc.
SM MBL-VIR looking 4 SIG 4 LTR. must be DDF, no 420, SD ok.
It's going to be a stretch for Toho to prove what it needs to prove: that Mozilla is infringing on a trademark. The words 'Godzilla' are not used anywhere, and the logo is of a different shape and color than Godzilla (it looks more like a T-Rex than anything else). The suffix 'zilla' and the presence of a reptilian image is not enough to shut down a software project. If it were a movie, however, this would be a different issue.
I'm not a lawyer, though, so anyone with a legal education and a better angle on the subject, feel free to correct.
Mozilla is a trademark infringement on Godzilla just as Godzilla is a trademark infringement on God. Now there's a three-way fight I'd like to see. :-)
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
Okay, I'll grant you that calling something ".+zilla" and using a dinosaur/dragon-like logo is probably coming close to violating a Godzilla trademark.
But what ever happened to the concept of a restricted space within which trademarks are (were?) supposed to operate? I had understood that trademarks were only protected within the same general "realm" of a product -- which is how we've got Excel cars and Excel spreadsheets.
It's seemed to me, with the advent of the modern internet, that all these distinctions have been thrown away, and that the courts are allowing that diminished distinction. So Palm has to stop calling their Pilot a "Pilot" because a pen company complains.
Does anyone know what exactly is the deal here? Have domain-name disputes finally opened the door for a single, universal, all-encompasing product namespace?
If someone wants to call their browser Mozilla (or even Godzilla), then they should be able to, because the chances of someone confusing a web browser with a big lizard are pretty darned slim.
Or have I misunderstood this aspect of (US) trademark law all along?
I wonder if they'll go after the product of one of my former employers, Go!Zilla. It used to have a more lizardy logo, but now it only has big eyes.
As a lark when I worked there, I once arranged for us to buy a number of 6 foot inflatable Godzilla dolls, which we dressed in company t-shirts and abused. We also had "I love the lizard!" logo tshirts.
But that was a long time ago and the company is gone now; only the product remains.
--jdp Maintainer of VisEmacs
Almost every graphical web browser's User-Agent string starts with "Mozilla/4.0". So unless they go after Opera, AOL and Microsoft, then they aren't adequately defending their trademark -- hence they no longer own exclusive rights to the trademark.
Go!Zilla, nomo zilla, :Zilla Clothing, My Zilla, Budgie-ZILLA, ZILLA sports, TrafficZilla, WebZilla, and even a thorny plant named Zilla
So they have lots of legal battles if they want. (Watch them claim that the thorny Zilla plant stole their ideas of a thorny reptile...)
frob.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
This vaugely reminds me when Nintendo was sued over their use of the Kong in "Donkey Kong" by the owners of King Kong. If I remember correctly, Nintendo won the case.
First off, I find it difficult to believe that anyone could see the 'Mozilla' name and logo, and not immediately associate it with Godzilla. I think they're right on that score. However, to make the next jump, and assume TOHO is putting out a web browser to beat MS is just too far for me to attempt. Isn't it good enough that when I think of Godzilla I get a good feeling and say, "Those TOHO guys sure were cool..." Apparently that is not the end result of what they want people to think about them. Lastly, who the HELL gave them rights to PART of a word? If AOL can't browbeat the GAIM guys down, how can TOHO?
Oh yeah, $$
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
how long before we run out of global namespace? Theer was a recent Slashdot on running out of copywritable melodies, but I cant find it...
.sigless since 2003
Gozilla was a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Mozilla is clearly a Tenontosaurus.
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
Sun, 11 August, 2002, war begining !
Goodbye little dragon guy!
[Blog] - Davezilla @ 07:07:43 pm
re: DAVEZILLA.COM
Dear Mr. Linabury:
What happen ? Someone set up us the trademark infringement ! Take off every 'zilla' ! You know what you doing.
For great justice,
SEYFARTH SHAW
Jill A. Jacobs
Just look at all the lawsuits waiting to happen.
And would someone please help out the Ogg Vorbis people?
Thanks to the fine folks at IMDB, Godzilla made his first appearance in the movie Gojira in 1956. Also consider that the court hearing this will likely be in Japan where Godzilla is a cultural icon (and monster movies as a whole). First round to Mister Godzilla.
Step 1) Buy some fireworks Step 2) Buy some model cars & tanks Step 3) Dress up CowboyNeal in a giant Tux costume Step 4) Film CowboyNeal stomping on a model of Toho Inc.'s Corporate HQ, in slow motion. Step 5) .....
Step 6) PROFIT!!
Yes, I am the real Abraham Lincoln.
Zoo Gorilla
Zeus Pilla
Shortening of Priscilla
Z-Index Layers Lose All
ZILch LAtitude
Zero Internet Lan Lag Access
I like creative names, and if a product name happens to pay homage to a famous fire-breathing dinosaur, so be it. Besides, Mozilla sounds a lot cooler than Moceratops or Morannosaurus or Mobarney.
if Microsoft happened to be in bed with Toho
Go!zilla, Nomo zilla, Zilla clothing, For my Zilla, Bellary Zilla Panchayat, Zilla Design, Shimoga Zilla Panchayat, Godzilla (some way down the list, unfortunately for Toho...), Budgie-Zilla, Zilla Sports, Cafe Electric - home of the Zilla, Zilla, Trafficzilla.com, Web-Zilla, Davezilla (even further down the list), and so on for "about 120,000" results.
Looks like them lawyers going to be mighty busy
The zilla is only a relict of a misleading transcription of the ji syllable which is the soft form of shi (or si) in the alternate trasncription. ;-)
Anyway, the zilla could be an allusion to jirasu (to irritate)
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
Lookout Bootzilla, da man is commin ta bring the TM smack down on tha funk!
Western announced on thier webpage that they have the new Drivezilla 200gb hard drive...will they get thier arses sued as well?
Classic animated short. Did they go after the guy who made that? Anybody know?
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
But Zilla is a dictionary word.
You'd think they'd get the hint after Microsoft unsuccesifully sued Lindows, claiming that they owned anything ending in "indows". If M$ can't do it, how is another company going to?
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
See, they didn't name Mozilla after a Japanese movie monster, they named after a certain Blue Oyster Cult song. Big difference! :)
they can only copyright godzira because japanese cant pronounce Ls
keanmarine.com
The Capitals' goalie Olaf Kolzig has a nickname of 'Zilla'. Something to do with his furious temper. He even has a picture of a dinosaur demolishing a city, with the word 'zilla' just below his facemask.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
zilla
\Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
I found an interesting tidbit about the origin of the name "Godzilla." It seems to be a combination of two Japanese words translated awkwardly to English (like trying to read an Excel 97 spreadsheet in Excel 2000).
I don't see anywhere in this story where anyone says anything about Toho coming after mozilla, that is pure speculation. This is not a story.
Here's the thing. Trademark requires that the holder of the trademark actively defend their mark. If they do not do so and it falls into common usage, it's too bad so sad for the trademark holder. So, even if you successfully argue that Mozilla infringed on Godzilla (are these really confusingly similar?), the judge will ask why they have let it exist for the past 10 years without questioning it.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
Nonsense, everyone knows that Godzilla originated in the depths of time and crawled out of the Pacific after the U.S. nuked the Bikini Islands.
Moreover, your use of the "ZILLA" formative ... is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the "DAVEZILLA.COM" website is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client
This is what is known as a portmanteau word. That is a word that conveys meaning by using parts of other words that have definite associations. Words such as smog (smoke and fog), or, more inline with davezilla, monicagate (Monica and Watergate), infomercial (info and commercial), and Linux (Linus and Unix). Whether this can be construed as trademark infringement is somebody else's call, but I rather think that The Almighty (God) and Homer (Trademark holder of the monster named Scylla) might have something to say about this.
Mozilla has nothing to do with Godzilla. Godzilla is a fictional character, Mozilla is a web browser and a user-agent. The term "Mozilla" as a user-agent has been around since the early days of Netscape. My guess is that any attempt to sue the Mozilla organization for trademark violation would be laughed out of court.
I mean if they can sue over the use of the zilla suffix, couldnt the major religons sue over use of their GOD icon? This really sucks. They want to be a household word like any franchise does, but they dont want us to use it as such. I would say this is crossing the Fuck You threshold.
I have been a fan of the big green lizard since i first saw the american version of the original film, but thats all over now. I gave up on Star Trek when they started going after fan sites in the 90s. what the hell is the world coming to?
"Doctor, it's not the voices I hear in MY head, but the voices I hear in YOUR head that really frighten me."
shouldn't this be filed under the "Godzilla's Rights Online"?
There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.
The character and the movie is GOJIRA.
God-zilla is an American Eenglish bastardization. They should at least after the right fucking phoneme.
how rame.
doesnt matter if he is using the logo or name or not - the /. effect will prevent people from seeing any of his "infringments" and confusing DAVEzilla with a short japanese actor in a rubber suit knocking over bala-wood buildings.
ProZilla! It's a great download manager for Linux that lets you download multiple parts of a file that are lated pasted togethor automatically. Great for downloading those ISO's off gatech's Linux server...
...Toho has withdrawn its suit in federal court against Blue Oyster Cult over their use of the trademark "Godzilla" due to the fact that no one can actually recall how the song went.
Thank you for observing all safety precautions.
Man I had a huge one this morning. Took three flushes to finally dispatch the beast to the netherworld. How's that for a copyright infringement?
... in WW2 if we would have said "fuck you, you royal gooker" to the emperor and nuked all of that waste of a slant-eye island. the japanese are racist mother fuckers.
This is seriously fucked up. I'm at the point where I think its time we simply declared open season on all lawyers. At least scumbag lawyers like the ones who write these kind of letters.
Sign up their email addresses to porn. Post their sites on portal of evil.com and watch them get trolled. Let the hack attacks begin. I'm sorry but its high time we the people put an end this the obscene litigation in this country.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
Goh-Ziwa
At least that's what they always said in the movies.
Someone set us up the lame-ass joke.
ZILLA
\Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
Maybe pictures of plants would be more appropriate. Same for Mozilla.
Hey, don't forget to nail these bastards for giving you TONS of free publicity!
Oh wait, some of them are dead? Fine, the lawyers can sue their descendants!
In fact, screw a national ID system. Every American needs a Personal Assigned Lawyer. Then we can all just have our PAL's sue each other until the entire world collapses under the weight of our beloved democratic Red Tape (TM).
Damnit! I'm not OLD enough to be this SICK of our society yet!!!
Here is Dictionary.com's definition of zilla.
Also, consider that Microsoft didn't win againts Lindows and that's a much closer match since it even pertains to the same kind of item or good e.g. an Operating System
I don't know about trademarks, but Japan has some pretty strict copyright laws. You can't even use a picture or screencap in an article or webpage without their permission, and if you do they WILL go after you. As a result Japanese fansites are kind of pathetic - mostly text, with perhaps some hand-drawn artwork. I don't know if they have anything like a fair use clause, but I seriously of doubt it. Likely toho is fuming over this "disrespectful" allusion/homage to their creation.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
the token annoying Japanese kid in tight shorts will be on hand to testify....
Probably not, his dubbing would be unbearable.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
...mozilla changes the name to mojira.
Seriously though, wasnt there some kind of law that allows such things if the name is being used for a fair long time?
how long has the name mozilla has been used?
How does Toho sending a cease and desist letter to someone named Davezilla about naming a character on his site "Godzilla" have anything to do with Mozilla the browser?
Where in any of this is Toho threatening Mozilla mentioned?
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
What about the margerine brand Mazolla? Are they being harassed also? If not, change the name to "Mozolla". What a difference a vowel can make.
Table-ized A.I.
I'm not sure if it will make any difference in the lawsuit or not, but the term Mozilla was coined at Netscape because it was intended to be a "Mosaic Killer." The lizard and Godzilla references were secondary, weren't they?
The requested URL
Here in Austin there is a small chain (three or four stores) of pizza places called Mangia's.
http://www.mangiapizza.com/
They use a large green dino-dragon-esque mascot (his name is Marty), and have a pizza called the Mangiazilla. Their catering truck at one location has a large molded Marty-zilla along the back.
I guess they got their letter, too.
Isn't there some protection for places that obviously are not in a competing market? Couldn't a company make tiny pillows and call themselves Microsoft Bedding? Why don't the same protections apply to a web browser or pizza joint compared to a movie monster? Is it due strictly to the merchandising potential of something like a movie character?
-l
The word Mozilla is so entrenched in the IT community, I just don't see how any legal action could do squat.
Can anyone tell me where the word zilla came from? Some Japanese director must have pulled the zilla part of Gozirra from somewhere. The word Godzilla isn't even a Japanese possibility. As far as I can find the word zilla is a plant.
\Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
So shouldn't someone sue Toho on behaf of the Zilla plant? GodZilla is stealing the glory of the Zilla plant. Just think, this plant has fed the Arabs for thousands of years, way before Godzilla ever went crashing around the mountainsides of Japan. School children around the world are being mislead that the word zilla has something to do with a big lizard! Write your local representative!!
Watashi wa namai Godazira des.
And rename it 'Butthead Japanese Company' instead.
Because at the end of Godzilla 2000 there's a little japanese guy that says that "There's a little Godzilla in all of us".
Don't know if that's legally binding or not.
I've been waiting forever to read the news that the Toronto Raptors are filing a lawsuit against Mozilla for (what in my opinion) is a blatent infringement of the Raptor logo.
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
There's a great sushi place in New York City, on 23rd between (I think) 5th and 6th, called "Monster Sushi". They had a very similar letter on their wall; I think it was because they had a Godzilla Roll (yum! with Spicy Mothra Sauce!)
They had to change the names of any menu items that explicity violated any trademarked names. They had no problem keeping the Monster Sushi name, I think in part because their nigiri is absolutely HUGE - the length and width of two full fingers, none of this pansy pinky finger crap.
oh thats right... up until recently Mozilla wouldn't have mattered to them because they were not that well known. However, now that they are getting national press the big dogs come out to bite. Always seems to happen this way... much like what Microsoft did to Redmond Linux and Lindows.
as if an attack from godzilla isnt enough, an attack of the slashdot effect is upon this site. sucks...
the fight between WWF and WWE was strickly over the acronym WWF. Two companies trying to use the SAME acronym. We are talking about only partial matches here.
That like Wal-Mart trying to sue Getty-Mart, or any other XXX-Mart.. etc.. etc..
What about Mojira?
Scientists need to act swiftly to develop a super robot version of Mozilla called Mecha Mozilla. It will be invincible!
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Great this sets a legal precedent, then I can fuck slashdot over the use of slash and dot and ergo period, then every person using the english language and or a charector set with the " ." in it will have to pay me 3 dollers per....and you though billgates was stinking rich.
When is the Catholic church going to sue Toho for using "God-" as a previx? That's some age-old copyright there. Old enough that soon it'll get reclaimed by the next amendment to the copyright expiration laws. Toho better start quaking in their boots. Well, not quaking. Wouldn't want iD software to sue, after all.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Where is Ultraman when you need him?
Luckily 'World Wresting Federation' did not change their name to "World Twrestling Federation" (WTF)
-- Hasbullah bin Pit (sebol)
The double-l in "zilla" is actually the spanish phoneme, pronounced as a consonantal "y", as in "quesadilla" (kay-sah-dee-ya) or "llama" (ya-ma).
Thus, "Mozilla" = "Mo-zee-ya".
Problem solved.
Besides, after the $8 anal raping that was the american Godzilla movie a few years ago, I doubt that Soho has any respect at all for the trademark.
GMFTatsujin
The people in Zillah, WA are going to be upset when they have to change the name of their town.
Something similar happened 20 years ago... See what happened... http://www.365animation.com/games/hollywood.shtml CaPZilla!
Refer to Bayer's Aspirin for another (and probably much better known) example of this.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Note /. username.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
...to re(anti)christen my Celeron 433 box Dilzilla after upgrading it to a nForce 2 mobo and an Athlon XP. Dilbert+Bob The Dinosaur=Dilzilla. Its current netname is Dilputer.
I suppose after I upgrade Dilputer I'll rename it Alice. She and her Fist Of Death kicks ass. And I don't want ninjas from Toho Pictures swarming on Catseye Labs if I rename it Dilzilla.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
"Mozilla held a placard that read, "Netscape 72, Microsoft 18," referring to recent market share data."
Two versions on... how much of a share has M$ gained ?
Can someone explain this? I mean, there are only 17576 possible 3-letter acronyms. What precedent allows for such a blatant and ridiculous claim? I mean, it's not like any of the standard arguments like confusability hold. And what happens if, I don't know, 18000 people want to use an acronym? Tough luck?
Also, how does British law hold when this is an american company broadcasting primarily in America? Does British law allow for international protection...of an acronym???? Can I also go to britain and copyright pi? Perhaps Planck's constant?
No offense to any Brits, but that is truly retarded. Another example of how we need trained judges and legislators for intellectual property cases.
At least the Mozilla case will be tried domestically, if it gets that far.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
According to my (somewhat abridged) Japanese - English dictionary, "Toho" means...
wait for it...
"all your zilla are belong to us"
"For every right, an equal responsibility..."
My post is probably flaimbait and highly off-topic, but the parent makes a really good point! Mod sdjunky up!
He who has no
This is just a brand new low. This isn't just an editorial slant, this could be shown to be slandering Toho. There is no evidence that this in any way relates to a strategy regarding mozilla. The key issue with davezilla is that there is a portrayed character named godzilla on the site with a similar appearance, head on infringement. To say definitively that this is just their strategy to take down mozilla is just damn stupid.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
www.fortune.com
I'm in the money.
I'm in the money.
Ted's in the money. to the tune of over a BILLION.
good reason NOT to buy a gateway.
Are we at least giving the offending Japanese company a good slashdotting? Mayhaps this will give them a taste of the negative effect that pursuing this baseless case will have.
Here's the link again if you don't have it:
http://www.toho.co.jp/
Sheesh, can't Toho just wait until our little browser stomps all over Redmond and breathes atomic fire on the Microsoft campus?
Going after names derived from an outdated name like Godzilla makes about as much sense as going after "Planet Of The..."
In other words, it makes a lot of sense in the right context.
I predict that within a few weeks it will be announced that [name of major studio] will be releasing a Godzilla movie in time for [Christmas 2004?], produced by [a name you recognize] and directed by [another name you recognize].
I just hope it doesn't star Adam Sandler.
While Toho first trademarked the Godzilla word mark in 1981, they did not hold a trademark on its use in computer software until October of 1994. Mozilla started in "mid-1994" from the best info I've been able to find. I seem to remember someone showing it to me in the spring of that year, though that might have been Mosaic. Neither their first trademark nor the software one have any illustrations or descriptions of a lizard-like monster creature, though; that does not appear to be a part of the trademark. Their most comprehensive trademark was registered in 2000, presumably with the launch of the Sony movie. That one *still* doesn't describe godzilla though.
I'm no trademark attorney, but I'm guessing that, since they're not claiming in the trademark registration that the mark consists of the word + the monster, they don't have a leg to stand on with *zilla claims. Also, it doesn't appear they stopped Bugzilla (the cleaning agent, not the software) from registering its trademark in 2000. Milton Bradley has also owned a trademark on Eggzilla since 1987.
All in all, they have a lot of fish to fry if they're going to try to reserve *zilla as their own, including multiple existing or pending trademarks. (Budzilla, Rodzilla, and Speedzilla are all currently published for opposition.)
I love the Trademark Electronic Search System...
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
So what happens to http://www.thumbzilla.com ?
type domains (.com only) from the past that are
no longer live:
what if this whole Godzilla was merely a fictional adaption of existing legend/myth? Wouldn't that mean that it is not anyones place to file suit?
The Japanese don't even pronounce it zilla ... they pronounce it something like "goh'zirra". If they win, does that mean that Stan Lee can go after anyone useing the name "Super-something"? (Superman was a Stan Lee creation, wasn't he?)
Who needs to sue these guys anymore....just post the intent to sue on Slashdot and watch the server crash. They can't infringe if thier server is a smoking pile of slag on the floor.
Just thought I'd mention that if this really does go to trial this company, Toho, is going to have to start some pretty heafty legal battles! The reason for this is how many companys are using a zilla post-fix? Lets see (off the top of my head not even doing searches) Mozilla and Go!Zilla, after doing a quick search (google, search=zilla) I find that JWZ has a rather prominant website with "nomo zilla", http://gamezilla.com, http://www.zilladesign.com/, http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/3749/bzilla.htm (someone planning a Godzilla rip off as a project), http://www.zillasports.com/, http://www.cafeelectric.com/ (produces a product called zilla with a reptilian logo), http://www.trafficzilla.com/, and the list goes on. I mean come on, this is a LOT of companys all using some sort of a "zilla" and some sort of a reptilian logo (of sorts) and some of these are LEGIT businesses! Why go after mozilla if it's an open source project (worse case scenario, heaven forbid, it changes it's name) when there are others making money off of the same type of thing? Sorry Toho, you loose....
Note that the user agent strings in most browsers say "Mozilla." For example, IE 6 on .NET Server says, "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; .NET CLR 1.0.3705)."
This tells me that Mozilla has become common enough in its own right as distinct from Godzilla. The most they could do would be to try to force a change of mascot, much as it would be funny to see them try to argue "Your honor, we submit that the user agent string in Internet Explorer is in violation of our trademark rights, and demand 1% of all Windows sales revenue."
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
That is one of the best names for a software package I have ever heard. I lead a sad life, also.
It's Fried Rice. You irriot!
I have been reading Slashdot for awhile and have never posted before. But this situation is such complete and utter bullshit, I am writing my first post.
I just wanted to tell you all that I work in Trademarks at the USPTO and the idea that anyone could possibly confuse the movie character GODZILLA with your DAVEZILLA website is complete and utter bullshit. I would love to see them prove dilution or damages in court. 23 out of 25 attys in my law office agreed with me. Fight this! Greedy corporate pigs....
Of course, you all realize that they are just going to try to bleed him dry with legal fees until he gives up.
(Does "IAAL" work as an acronym?)
Interesting how company counsel chooses to go after some individual who is unlikely to possess the resources to contest their claim. I wonder if they're going after more commercial uses of variations on the word "Godzilla?"
http://gozilla.com
TANSTAAFL
Misreporters should all be forced to shower on regualr basis.
Actually, I wouldn't mind if the Milk Council copyrighted the word "Got" in order to nix all those thousands of *wonderfully original* variations that never fail to make me laugh and laugh and laugh. "Got Root?" What a gut-buster!
I always thought "Mozilla" was a stupid name for a fucking web browser. Maybe they can have a contest to come up with a new name. How about "grp" (pronounced "Gurp"). Stands for Gecko Reference Platform. Whatever.
That's a killa! Next they go after vanilla and [the artist formerly identifiable as] Michael Jackson and his "Thrilla." And what about Hanna-Barbera and their Magilla Gorilla?
This whole thing just makes me feel illa.
zilla
\Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
(From "Austin Powers in Goldmember")
Japanese Man 1: RUN!!!!! IT'S GODZILLA!
Japanese Man 2: It looks like Godzilla but due to international copyright laws...it's not.
Japanese Man 1: STILL, WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA!!
Japanese Man 2: No, it isn't.
[Japanese Man 2 Winks at Camera]
What about the download accelerator program Go'Zilla?
It's even closer to the name than Mozilla is! Surely they'd be better off having a shot at that (anything to get rid of a horribly inefficient piece of spyware!)
David
zilla is used as a term in india, apparently in refernce to rural govt.
http://www.kar.nic.in/bellary/
zilla is a plant
\Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
this is a stupid suit
God today files a lawsuit in superior court today against Godzilla for its use of the Trademark name God.
Will this never end?
I guess.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Go ahead and change the name. Just think of the possibilities! I think it would be hilarious if there was an open source project called MoScrilla.
What about Gozilla - that annoying download-resumer thing for Windows? It sounds a lot more like Godzilla than Davezilla.
-- Wibble
As I'm checking flight status for Chicago O'Hare airport (which I hope none of you is flying through today, btw), I go the the FAA website and am redirected to this url:m l
http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyFAA/indexzilla.ht
Guess the FAA had better watch out!
Well, I for one am glad to see this happening. I am sick and tired of the utter confusion that ensues while trying to figure out the difference between my web browser and the giant, destructive, dinosaur-like monster that attacked all those poor Japanese people.
I agree with you that legal actions on such issues have become a game that has little to do with the legal standing of them, this is a bit different in the long run. While they can sue this guy and he'll likely cave, they aren't going to get a similar response from the Mozilla folks. Why? Because they have the backing of one of the largest media empires on the planet (AOL Time Warner), and because there's value in the Mozilla trademark.
My best is that if they go after Mozilla, they'll end up in court and they will lose.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
Milton Bradley has a trademark for the EGGZILLA parlour game. This was approved by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), so it doesn't conflict with Toho Co Ltd's Godzilla trademarks. On this basis, Mozilla should be safe.
This info came from the US Patent and Trademark Office's web site (http://www.uspto.gov), which lists 22 Godzilla-related and similar trademarks.
Trademarks are awarded for particular business areas, which must be specified in the trademark application, along with the date when the mark was first used.
For example, TM number 73217718 was filed in 1979 and awarded in 1981. It covers Godzilla(TM) used in the context of:
IC 041. US 107. G & S: Entertainment Services in the Nature of a Continuing Motion Picture Film Series. FIRST USE: 19560000. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19560000
A quick look through the other Godzilla trademark applications shows that they apply to animated series, games, beach towels, computer games, etc.
IANAL, and don't know how narrowly the USPTO defines computer software, but I would think that as long as Mozilla is not posing as a computer game, there is no conflict.
We will get that Japanese sub !
HOLY CRAP! I just realized my website uses the letter 'a' many times. In fact my ISP's domain has an 'a' in it. Uh-oh, since Godzilla has an 'a' in it, they're going to sue the pants off of us!
Wait a sec...my friend uses the word 'God' in her site...they'll be going after her too! Oh the humanity!
All are valid uses of 'NSS', some are commercial ventures, some are non-profits and several have trademarks or copyrights with their associated name, not the abbreviation.
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
Axiom #1
_____Anonymous Coward said "God is dead".
Axiom #2
_____God said "Anonymous Coward is dead".
Therefore:
_____The dead said "God is an Anonymous Coward"
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/gamera/gamera2.jpg
my friend made up an entity called popezilla. it would run around and eat synagogues.... boy was that funny!
QED
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
Godzilla vs. Davezilla vs. Mozilla? When is that coming out on DVD? Can I preorder it from Amazon.com?
No, you'll have to order it from Amazilla.com
qz
Just give them 50% profits off of mozilla. Write them a check each month for $0.00, and comment field saying for sexual favors.
They could also get a discount on all mozilla downloads!
If they can complain about zilla, will they also complain about God?
In additional to any monetary damages awarded by the court He has also stated that He will be seeking more long-term, Eternal punishments; citing precendences pertaining to "Thou shall not take the Lord's name in vain".
There is some controversy surrounding this precedence as it is not commonly viewed as valid by secular courts. Those closer to The Lord however hold little doubt that He will be able to act upon this measure with "swift and furious vengeance".
Public opinon has it that if Toho loses it will be highly unlikely that any appeals will be heard or effective.
I will never live for sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
Just change the mascot to a small flowering bush and everyone should be happy.
they shut down a scottish-owned muffin stand named 'MacMuffins' and have harassed many similarly titled businesses out onto the street. if you have Mc or Mac in your business name, they'll come after you..
I saw a report about it on 60 minutes a year or two ago. There actually is a Lord McDonald in Britain, who is *the* McDonald by way of a 500 year old royal charter (mebbe he's a thane or duke or other goofy title, besides the point). He heard about this type of stuff, and decided to open a high-class restaurant in his castle, named "McDonalds". He basically sat there daring them to take action. Of course they didnt, but it'd have been funny to see Mickey D's have to change THEIR name after picking the wrong battle.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Person 1: ITS GODZILLA!
Person 2: Actually, it's not actually godzilla due to trademark restrictions but we can still pretend it's godzilla.
Person 1: RUN, ITS GODZILLA!
Person 2: (but not really!) AAAHH!
Fair use doesn't really apply.
Even if that wasn't the case, it isn't satire, as Mozzilla isn't a joke, it is a real product.
I don't know if the lizard/dragon is supposed to exemplify its threat to the competition, or be representative of the large, bloated, destructive mass of the application. Either way, the name, and logo were specifically chosen to conjure up images of Godzilla.
They aren't quoting any of the movies.
They aren't being satirical of any of the movies.
The product is a legitimate product.
No fair use going on here, even if it was just a copyright problem, which it isn't.
What if C3 Entertainment sues Mozilla for its blatant abuse of the trademarked "Mo*" from The Three Stooges?
I guess they'll have to use a null value instead of "Mozilla".
Nyuk nyuk nyuk!
"Saddam Hussein cavorts with terrorists."
Will somebody please register satanzilla.com before I do? I need another domain like I need another hole in my head.
_______
2B1ASK1
In other words: Let's say the company just sits around and does nothing about Mozilla, DaveZilla, WhateverZilla. A few years from now some toy company (let's call them ToyZilla.com) starts selling some green dinosaurs, calling them Godzilla. Of course Toho is going to sue them over trademark infringement, but ToyZilla.com's lawyers argue that Toho lost all rights to the trademark, since it didn't do anything about Mozilla and the like.
Therefore Toho's exec's say: Kill them while they're still small!
Don't blame the company for doing stupid things if stupid laws require them to do so.
I used to own Mickey Mouse Massage Parlors, then those Disney sleazebags shut me down. Look, I said, I'll change the logo, put Mickey's pants back on, but there's just no reasoning with some people.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
But Toho has taken far too long to say anything about it, and they have no legitimate grounds upon which to complain now. They failed to defend their mark, and now it's part of the common lexicon. It's like what we saw recently with the claims of a privately-held patent on the JPEG standard. Many people rightly quoted, uh, someone, saying something like "those who sleep on their rights cannot expect others to defend them."
My deviantArt site
If AOL/TW actually believe they'll go after Davezilla in order to create precedence, there is nothing stopping the big evil mamozilla of a companzilla from chopping in some gazilla in Davezillas defense, is there?
Nearly every comment here is missing the point.
The objection brought against the website is the use of the term "GODZILLA" in conjunction with an image of a reptile(godzilla)-like creature. The C&D letter did mention the use of the "zilla" suffix but only in conjuntion with the use of their trademark and the likeness of a godzilla-like creature. It appears that if the image and reference were removed, the company would no longer have a complaint.
As far as this being a pre-cursor to action against mozilla.... I can only chuckle. Even if the Godzilla trademark holders want to come after all the "zillas" out there (and I don't think they do), they would never be able to get a favorable ruling because this "zilla" construction has been used back into antiquity (in computing terms) and has never been challenged. So the courts would have to rule that "something-zilla" is no longer part of their trademark because it hasn't been protected
Comments should be like skirts. Short enough to keep your attention, but long enough to cover the subject
www.zillah.com I mean an Eastern Washington farm town with a bunch of wineries is just so confusingly similar to a fire-breathing radioactive Japanese dinosaur.
Seriously you've really got to wonder in the current climate how long before a trademark holder goes after a small town with a name "confusingly similar" to their mark.
Happy Fun Ball is for external use only.
Butthead Japanese Filmmaker. (Along the lines of Apple's codename "Sagan," which was changed to "BHA" for butt head astronomer when Sagan whined.)
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
What happens when you download the mp3 called
o up _id=21558
BlueOysterCult - Godzilla.mp3
Oh no, they say he's got to go..oo
Godzilla.
Yeahh..
Blue Otter Cult rocks.. did I say Otter? heh heh thats a cool name. Hey ToYoGo KoYoGo Japan go after Blue Otter Cult..
Speaking of downloads, better download Filezilla quick And FilezillaServer also
it's on sourceforge. type in filezilla and enjoy the nice gftp clone..
or if your lazy. Ya never know they may be next too!
http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/
or
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?gr
... to set a precedent before attacking Mozilla.
Um, maybe, maybe not. So far all Toho has done is asked Davezilla to change his logo. There's no indication that they intend to "set a precedent" and "go after" anyone else.
Granted, this all does seem a little suspicious. For all we know, though, some executive just had a nephew graduate from law school, and decided to give him a pet project to pad his resume. I'd say at least wait until the lawyer-letters go out before hitting the panic button.
Not necessarily a direct quote:
Bystander #1: "Oh no! It's Godzilla! Run!"
Bystander #2: "Even though, due to international trademark laws, I must inform you that it's not actually Godzilla!"
Anybody want to bet which country is the first to refuse to honor any IP law?
ISTR the Ukraine didn't acknowledge US copyrights? (I've got a bad memory module, I think - help me out here). Maybe they should continue that trend.
After all the US's economy did pretty well a century or two ago after it refused to honor UK IP, allowing factories to spring up there which would otherwise be "in violation" of the patent/copyright.
Yeah, yeah, offtopic, I know.
--Knots;
Anarchy$ dd if=/dev/random of=~/.signature bs=120 count=1
Or is there a trademark on that?
Why, why, why, why, why?!?!
The suffix "-zilla" has entered the lexicon as a direct result of the Godzilla franchise.
Of course, Godzilla uses the suffix "illa" which was popularized by a human predecessors known as the "gorilla".
The bottom line in trademark infringement is that it turns on a "likely to cause confusion in the market". If you think the Mozilla software browser is likely to be confused with the Godzilla entertainment brand, then you have the intellect of a gorilla.
so .... when will they sue cheeze....?
could you explain to me in basic scientific terms how the heck you could OVERHEAT some coffee? McD had a pressurized pot or something like that? dunno what your retarded Fahrenheit-scale shows, but last time i checked, water could only be heated up 100 Celsius - then it boils and vapors up and a way in a nice and puffy cloud. you can heat steam up to where no man has gone before, millions of degrees Kelvin if you have some energy to spare, but WATER in its liquid form (and since coffee is 99percent pure water with some brown color its nearly the same) can not be heated up beyond its boiling point. finito, then it vaporizes and theres nothing more to burn your genitals with it. third degree burns are caused by temps clearly above 100Celsius. think about sitting in a campfire for ten minutes. but not 200millilitres of that poor little McD coffee.
Completely OT, but...
An 800 pound elephant? Is that a baby elephant?
--
"I'm surfin the dead zone
In the twilight, unknown"
zilla \Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
In other news, Egyptian Arabs are to sue Japan for constantly being destroyed by a *.zilla; their trademark clearly states is should be boiled and eaten.
Carpe Daemon
TOho needs to sue the TOkra in stargate SG3.
hollyweed vs. hollwoo
Japanese Man 1: RUN!!!!! ITS GODZILLA!
Japanese Man 2: It Looks like Godzilla But due to International Copyright Laws.....Its not.
Japanese Man 1: STILL WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA!
Japanese Man 2: But it's not
[Japanese man winks at camera]
for their 'Biotech Is Godzilla' song ?
I also strongly suspect that this person just slapped his/her forehead upon reading about the case in question. It was probably an innocent mistake by a person with a sense of humor and no idea that anyone outside their little comp-sci community would see it... Oooops. Don't you just hate it when pet project get out of control and take a life of their own?
One could argue that Mozilla now has a widely-understood meaning separate to Godzilla (especially considering that Microsoft sends a Mozilla string with every HTTP request), but it would take a lawyer to tell whether that's a meaningful defense. IANAL; I dunno.
Build stuff. Stuff that walks, stuff that rolls, whatever.
"Please be advised that your use of the GODZILLA mark constitutes a trademark infringement and confuses consumers and the public into believing that your "GODZILLA" character originates from Toho, which it does not. Moreover, your use of the "ZILLA" formative along with imagery associated with GODZILLA is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the "DAVEZILLA.COM" website is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client..."
No.
It does not.
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
(I believe he complained again, and the name was changed yet again, but I'm not sure...)
Build stuff. Stuff that walks, stuff that rolls, whatever.
I never liked the name "Mozilla" for a web browser, it might appeal to geeks - who might be amused by the Godzilla reference, but I very much doubt that it appeals to the general public.
It may seem silly that something as trivial as a name can have such an impact, but just try telling a non-geek "Hey, check out mozilla dot org, it is a really great web browser", watch their reaction, and think about how likely they are to look at it based on its name.
Carl: "Hey, I heard we're goin' to Ape Island."
Lenny: "Yeah, to capture a giant ape."
Carl: "I wish we were going to Candy Apple Island."
Charlie: "Candy Apple Island? What do they got there?"
Carl: "Apes. But they're not so big."
Zilla is a name for shadow.
According to this, zilla is a business-minded insomniac.
would that count?
Go!Zilla zillaclothing.co.uk (seems to be broken) gamezilla.com zilladesign.com zillasports.com (which has a dragon in its logo) trafficzilla.com (green godzillaesque lizardy thing for a logo) web-zilla.com etc etc etc so do they plan to fight every single one of those?
[fires up oldest Mosaic version I have, checks under "Help, About"]
"Mozilla b0.4, Beta version 0.4, Sep 9 1994 at 16:59:43. Copyright 1994 Mosaic Communications Corporation, All rights reserved. win_cbug@mcom.com"
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
your use of the "ZILLA" formative along with imagery associated with GODZILLA is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the "DAVEZILLA.COM" website is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client, and demonstrates an attempt by you to trade on the goodwill built up by our client
Disclaimer at bottom of front page:
"The use of the "ZILLA" formative along with imagery associated with GODZILLA does NOT mean that this website is either associated with, authroized by, or sponsored by Toho, and it does NOT demonstrate an attempt by me to trade on the goodwill built up by Toho."
re: DAVEZILLA.COM
Your Excellency:
It has come to our attention that you have incorporated the "GOD" portion of our client's GODZILLA marks in the name of your "GOD" diety name. Please be advised that your use of the GODZILLA mark constitutes a trademark infringement and confuses consumers and the public into believing that your "GOD" character originates from Toho, which it does not. Moreover, your use of the "GOD" formative is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the GOD diety is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client, and demonstrates an attempt by you to trade on the goodwill built up by our client. As such, we request that you remove the objectionable imagery and reference to GODZILLA from your religion to eliminate any likelihood of confusion and posibility of an inaccurate affiliation with Toho and GODZILLA.
We look forward to receiving your prompt reply, with a statement of your intentions, no later than August 16, 2002. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Very truly yours,
SEYFARTH SHAW
Jill A. Jacobs
I've been using this nick since '95! : (
i even planned on getting brakzilla.com in a few months.
don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things
Hmmm. They claim they own the word "zilla"? Looks like Toho has a lot of suing to do.
Damn right it would be cool. They wouldn't know whether to sue it or bid for it!
Ali
Ph33r m3!!!
I wouldn't be so sure about that, the way they are naming some of these new cars...
Here's an old quote:
With a purposeful grimace and a Mongo-like flair
He throws the spinning disk drives in the air!
And he picks up a Vax and he throws it back down
As he wades through the lab making terrible sounds!
Helpless users with projects due
Scream "My God!" as he stomps on the tape drives, too!
Oh, no! He says Unix runs too slow! Go, go, DECzilla!
Oh, yes! He's gonna bring up VMS! Go, go, DECzilla!"
* VMS is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation
* DECzilla is a trademark of Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of Death, Inc. -- Curtis Jackson
So even if the browser is borrowing a moniker, would it not properly be spelled MOjira?
Dear Mr. Minister:
It has come to our attention that you have incorporated the "GOD" portion of our client's GODZILLA marks in the name of your "Church of God" church name, and that you have included an unstoppable all-powerful being, which you refer to as "GOD", on your publications. Please be advised that your use of the "GOD" formative along with imagery associated with GODZILLA is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the "Church of God" website is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client, and demonstrates an attempt by you to trade on the goodwill built up by our client.
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
God has claimed copyright infringement on the people claiming that they own rights to "Godzilla". He is also suing people that use the phrase "Goddamnit". You may, however, not be held responsible if you use the phrase, "Goddamit!", when using it in refererence to talking to telemarketers or your friends that owe you money.
Suck on that Toho!
Actually, the "illa" trademark was STOLEN by Godzilla from "Magilla Gorilla", who stole it from Pancho Villa!
Dave,
Searching on 'zilla' at http://www.bartleby.com/ turns up:
http://www.bartleby.com/162/index.html
Author: Sinclair Lewis. Title: "Babbitt" Published: 1922. Specifically: NEW YORK: HARCOURT, BRACE & CO., 1922 NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 1999
Description:
From what I can tell, 'Zilla' is the first name of one of the female characters.
From chapter 10: http://www.bartleby.com/162/10.html
In other searches:
Lea, Zilla Rider.: The Ornamented Chair: Its Development in America [1700-1890].c e/Y01Y0107470Y7040194/qid=1029283594/sr=1-3/ref=ap s_sr_bdgw_z_3_3/002-5586454-7498459
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glan
Judith Gorog: Zilla Sasparilla and the Mud Baby.c e/Y01Y0060907Y1363369/qid=1029283594/sr=1-2/ref=ap s_sr_bdgw_z_3_2/002-5586454-7498459
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glan
A Friend Like Zilla.9 005716/qid=1029283594/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_3/002-558645 4-7498459?s=books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/092
Endothelialization of Vascular Grafts by P.P. Zilla, R.D. Fasol, M. Deutsch (Editor)5 545576/qid=1029283594/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/002-558645 4-7498459?s=books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/380
http://whitepages.com
Seaching on "zilla" under "Last Name" / "Is Exactly" turns up 69 people.
Why would anyone want to associate themselves with Godzilla? Didn't you see the film?
Dave, http://www.deep-trance.com
McDonald's, particularly, has a history of vigorously protecting their copyright. I saw a story on it on 60 Minutes several years ago. Particularly amusing was the lawsuit they had against a resturant/inn in Scotland called MacDonald's. The place was over 400 years old, and the owner of the place as a MacDonald. Actually, he was the MacDonald, the head of clan MacDonald.
Large companies get their way cause they have lots of money and lots of lawyers, and the opponents, right or wrong, frequently cannot afford the time and money to fight a court battle.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Of course "Godzilla" isn;t really even "Godzilla" it's "Gozira". Back to the bickering.
It would appear MegaTokyo has been slashdotted.
Horrible, horrible people...
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Zilla \Zil"la\, n. (Bot.)
A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant ({Zilla
myagroides}) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are
boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
This and other dubious achievements are discussed here.
- GIF
- JPG
- *zilla
In each case, the trademark or patent holder let the name be use for a lengthy period of time before taking legal action. This is a problem - there should be some limit.. such as, after a certain period of time, the patent/trademark holder is assumed to not care and waive their right to sue in that case.Why not get the remaining 999 websites with zilla in their name together and some cool lawyer and file lots of lawsuits against them.. =)
So I'm now going to sue Toho for trademark dilution by their use of the name GODzilla.
Has anyone mentioned that Mozilla is a Spanish word?
It's in the dictionary from moza = young woman,
unmarried girl, maidservant etc.
So it's pronounced: mo-seel-ya,
or mo-theel-ya in Castilian.
No, I think you're right -- in a trademark dispute the prosecution has to prove that consumers might be confused and buy the wrong product. I don't think that's true in this case, and I bet if this comes to court it will be thrown out. It looks to me like one of those scare lawsuits that's never intended to come to court ...
Haven't you noticed? The hue of a discussion is based on a sophisticated algorithm that matches the nett rating of potty-mouth comments in an article against an RGB lookup table of faeces samples.
Sort of like the hot-chillis you see in Eudora, but brown.
Xix.
(waiting for a baby-poo yellow thread)
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
With nickname like mine, should I be worried too? :-)
Konqueror displays in just about any alphabet you want except Elvish
OK, everybody with a bugzilla.mozilla.org account go vote for Bugzilla Bug 52746 - Mozilla does not support dynamic fonts and Bugzilla Bug 59611 - Add TrueDoc (or like) support to Mozilla. Without a solution to those bugs, there's no way to write text in a script that Microsoft or Apple doesn't recognize, such as the Tengwar of Feanor.
Will I retire or break 10K?
There was a US hi-fi amplifier made and sold in
the 70's or 80's with the name Ampzilla -
it was powerful and got some decent ratings in
the hi-fi mags... since this was not challenged
the japanese co. should lose its rights from
this case alone...
please mod this up so the lawyers might notice it.
I guess you didnt read the Yoga Inside article awhile back on /. Even if the two items exist in completely different fields, a company can still feel they are being cheated out of the time and money they took to establish their trademark in any and all markets, according to the Trademark Dilution Act of 1995.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=zilla
l la &action=Search+OMD
zilla
\Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?query=zi
zilla
<botany> A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs.
Source: Websters Dictionary
(01 Mar 1998)
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=zilla zilla \Zil"la\, n. (Bot.) A low, thorny, suffrutescent, crucifeous plant (Zilla myagroides) found in the deserts of Egypt. Its leaves are boiled in water, and eaten, by the Arabs. Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
The same happened with the name "ZKBOI" against the swiss bank "ZKB". Because ZKB (three letters) are inside that name "ZKBOI" got sued.
...
The case was won by ZKB but dropped after a few changes where made to the name. ZKboi is possible for example but not ZKBoi.
http://www.zkboi.nu/zkb gives the details
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
From Clerks: The Animated Series - Episode 6
Carnie: Do you sell Band-Aids?
Randal: Band-Aids is a brand name. The proper term is adhesive strips.
Dante: The man is bleeding to death and your getting into a symantics argument?
Randal: Man, name brand word association is one of the more subtle threats to this nation's free trade. It gives the larger well-known companies an unfair advantage. I'm doing my part to keep the playing field level by weening people off refering to generic products with brand names.
Dante: Way to show some backbone.
Randal: No spine of JELLO here my friend.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
That's just the beginning. I'm sure that this empire can come up with other nasty things to do about them.
Toho v Time-Warner-AOL = Bambi v Godzilla (an actual short flick, and another instance of lack of trademark defense)
Tech Public Policy stuff
Can't he claim he was spoofing mozilla, not godzilla? The dinasaur was red.
As others have pointed out, the suffix 'zilla' has entered common speech. Kleenex, Xerox, Hoover, ... - Well, it's not the first one.
Didn't Maxtor just name their gigantic hard drive Drivezilla?
There is no such thing as good luck. There is only misfortune and its occasional absence.
Godzilla is a bad transliteration of the Japanese Gojira. The name seems to be inspired by other large creatures' names in Japanese; i.e. whale (which they kill for scientific purposes only, explaining why I can always go to my local supermarket and buy whale meat) is kujira in Japanese.
This makes the case look like Kellog's trying to get an injunction against MGM's use of a lion logo for trademark infringement on Tony the tiger.
About Mobilix, a Linux tool and "Asterix" which is a comic.
The latter sued the former because of the name but you can read all the matter in here:
http://mobilix.org/mobilix_asterix.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=*zilla%2C+-godzilla ...Thats 72,100 suits comming right up
It'll blue-screen before he gets to Hawaii...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Laying the smack down on a company just for trademark usage in their user agent string may seem a little far fetched. But keep in mind that US courts have found DNS entries to violate trademark rights in a number of cases. (And that's not even because the server could transmit the trademark-containing name, but only because of the IP address it replies with).
They're both just as flimsy if you ask me.
Won't this affect all browsers, since they all (as far as I know) report themselves in their headers as "Mozilla comaptible"?
Bob
Listen to my latest album here
I have an exclusive copy on my weblog...
[wink]
Whatever happened to JonKatz?
Mobilix.de: A german website about Unix operating systems on laptops, PDAs, smartphones etc... :-)
Obelix: A french comic character (ironically, one of the brave Gauls defending themselves against the mighty Romans
But -zilla is less common as a name suffix than -ix...
Don't drink and su! antidisestablishmentariazationally
The entire US glass and building industries have just announced their intention to sue Microsoft over the use of the word 'Windows', which, they claim, has been in use by the building industry for thousands of years.
Last I checked, there was a OS/390 system program named IGDZILLA. Who has more lawyers?
And what about the Anglican church process those stupid guys from GODzilla for using GOD :-))
This is starting to became surreal.
Lopo
The Mozilla name seems to have been coined by jwz back in 1994 (see the 5 August entry). The Mozilla name seems to have been associated with Netscape longer than the Netscape name actually. At that time the company was called Mosaic Communications Corporation.
So ZZ Top needs to change the names of Cad-zilla and Hog-zilla too?
Jehovah has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Toho demanding that they stop using "God" in the name "Godzilla"
God phoned in, he wants his name back.
Aaahhh...you're right. When I first wrote it down, it was probably supposed to be 8000 pounds or so.
Hmmm a baby elephant...like Dumbo. I've changed my sig to match something a Disney character would do. ;-)
I hope the Jurassic Park team and Blue Oyster Cult are wearing lead underwear!
http://page33.port5.com -- Spread the paranoia.
Which was in 1968 people ... I also had really soft small eraser which was called GUESS WHAT? ....
....
yes it was called *that*
Offtopic, yes. Overrated? Perhaps. Troll? I think not. I must have offended some ignorant "The Register" lover out there. God forbid that I should reply to somebody's stupid comment designed to brag to everybody that he reads some low quality web rag. Hell, there's probably like 2 stories a day from "Wired" or "Salon" on the front page, but nobody makes comments like that about those sites. I guess "The Register's" readers are less mature then the readers from those other sites..
(Now that's a real troll, Mr. Moderator. Please take note.)
It's kind of late to add this but I remember in the 80's there was an amplifier called Ampzilla (connoting its high power) made by the Great American Sound Company. IIRC, it had a dinosaur-like logo sort of like the Mozilla logo. It would surprise me if Ampzilla wasn't registered as a trademark.
Hey, tohozilla.com's free. ;)
Shut up before I mod you down again for good measure.
...I guess Thumbzilla's fucked...oh wait.