Copyright & Trademark Issues Revisited

Above, Yuu Asakura with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan."  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Almost three years ago, I was interviewed during my trip to Japan by several news outlets on The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan.  JapanToday asked about the issue of copyrights concerning Toho Co., Ltd.'s characters.

I answered it as follows:

Was there any copyright trouble over the content of your book?  Toho is very protective of how Godzilla’s image is used. 

No. The guide only discusses the locations used in the movies and since it is educational in content and no movie stills or any other Toho-generated stills were used, it falls under the U.S. Fair Use laws. I gave a copy to a friend who used to be the general manager of Toho’s Los Angeles office. He was involved a lot of litigation involving copyright infringement cases with Toho’s characters while general manager in LA and he was impressed with the way it turned out. I always consulted Toho in the past to make sure they’d have no problem with anything I did and they have been very cooperative. Additionally, to be on the safe side, I included a disclaimer in the book stating that Godzilla and related characters are Toho’s copyrights and trademarks. 

To read the full interview, go here:  http://www.japantoday.com/category/arts-culture/view/the-monster-movie-fan%E2%80%99s-guide-to-japan

Wired.com posted an article back in 2008 on Toho's aggressive pursuit of possible copyright infringements on their characters.

They wrote, in part:

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.

To read the full article, go here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/11/godzilla-terror/