Godzilla Sues Honda for Trademark Infringement

Posted by Ken Davidson on Feb 11th, 2011

The owner of the Godzilla trademark, Toho Co. Ltd, has sued Honda for trademark infringement. According to the complaint filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, a Honda ad for the Odyssey minivan infringed the mark because it included images of Godzilla in a movie playing on a television screen in the backseat of the van. The ad agency that created the campaign, Rubin Postaer & Associates, obtained the license to use the clip from the film in which Godzilla appeared (the movie the “Bad News Bears Go to Japan“), but did not get permission to use the Godzilla trademark. The suit alleges trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment.

Rubin Postaer & Associates and Thought Equity Motion, the licensing company that licensed the “Bad News Bears” clip, were also named as defendants.

Here is the commercial. Judas Priest fans, enjoy:

Toho Co. Ltd. v. American Honda Motor Co. et al., 2:11-cv-01013-SVW-CW (C.D. Cal. complaint filed Feb. 2, 2011).


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