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Godzilla's Lawyers Claim Apple App Fingerzilla is Infringing

Toho, the owner of all things Godzilla, claims a menacing-looking human index finger with monster-like scales pictured over a skyline is treading on the Japanese company’s intellectual-property rights. With that belief, the Japanese monster-maker is demanding that the producer of an Apple iOS app quit using the finger on its website and icon for the […]

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Toho, the owner of all things Godzilla, claims a menacing-looking human index finger with monster-like scales pictured over a skyline is treading on the Japanese company's intellectual-property rights.

With that belief, the Japanese monster-maker is demanding that the producer of an Apple iOS app quit using the finger on its website and icon for the Fingerzilla app.

"Our client has not authorized Inert Soap to use images of its Godzilla character," Toho's lawyers wrote Inert Soap, the appmaker based in San Mateo, California, according to an April 19 takedown notice obtained by Wired.com. The lawyers added that "unauthorized use of images of the Godzilla character (.pdf) constitutes copyright infringement," and might make the public "mistakenly believe that your business and game are associated with, authorized by, created by, endorsed by or sponsored by Toho."

Godzilla's latest intellectual-property attack, however, should come as no surprise.

Toho has launched hundreds of lawsuits and takedown notices targeting 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.

Now the backers of the radioactive monster, who was awakened by an atomic blast nearly six decades ago, have set its fire-breathing chops on the Apple app store. Toho wants Inert Soap to change its "advertising" tactics because, among other reasons, the game's icon and website contain a picture of a human finger that breathes fire and has spiny scales -- all of which Toho claims confusingly looks like Godzilla.

The $2 Fingerzilla app, which has been sold about 100,000 times, bills itself as a "fast-paced, explosive game of utter destruction." Users of the game employ their finger to "rain fiery chaos down upon buildings, cars and people."

Michael Scandizzo, a partner in the two-man Inert Soap operation, said he was flummoxed when he received the takedown notice.

"It's a picture of my hand, one finger extended and a little cityscape," he said in a telephone interview. "We thought it was kind of funny. Suddenly, your finger's like a monster."

He said he did not believe that his website and icon were infringing.

"It's supposed to be humorous, silly, essentially a parody of Godzilla. It's not actually a real monster," Scandizzo quipped. "It's a photograph of my hand where I attach a mouth and some ridges and the back of my finger to make it look kind of monstrous. That's me being silly."

In response to Toho's lawyers, Scandizzo has lightened up the color of the website image of his index finger, so it looks more like a human finger. The app's icon has always looked like a human finger.

What's more, Toho said in its letter to Scandizzo that it "has no objection to Inert Soap's use of Fingerzilla alone, provided it is not used with imagery attributable to the Godzilla character and films or used in a manner intended to trade on the goodwill associated with Godzilla."

Toho's lawyers, of Seyfarth Shaw in Los Angeles, declined comment on whether they'll accept Scandizzo's alteration ... or give him the finger.

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