The battle between Grillzilla, a small barbeque stand on Main Street, Damariscotta, and the Toho Company Ltd, owners of the Godzilla intellectual property, has gone global: news of Toho’s Company’s demand that Grillzilla change its logo or name has reached newspapers, television, and radio stations all over the world, from CBS to NPR’s “Marketplace.”
The owners of Grillzilla, Sarah Burnham and Jay Swett, were sent a letter in April from Jill A. Jacobs, a lawyer at Seyfarth Sawyer LLP in Los Angeles, claiming that the roadside barbeque had infringed on the Toho Company’s intellectual property with the name of their restaurant and the corresponding logo, a dinosaur with a sausage on a barbeque fork.
The letter was followed by a cease and desist letter in May, demanding that the couple stop using the name “zilla” in conjunction with their logo. The Grillzilla owners were given until June 30 to change either their name or logo. They are still currently in the process of designing a new logo for their stand.
“We’re looking for the one that just zings,” said Burnham
The owners of Grillzilla had little to do with the sudden viral nature of the story. While they spoke to local papers such as The Lincoln County News, Swett and Burnham were entirely surprised, and unaware, that their story would garner national attention.
According to Burnham, the couple first learned that their story would be picked up when they were opening up their BBQ stand one morning. On their answering machine was a message from CBS, saying that they were going to send news of the Grillzilla/Toho Company battle to 600 affiliated stations nationwide. A message from American Public Media, the producers of Marketplace on NPR, also said they were going to run the story.
Burnham and Swett have received public feedback both local and international. According to Burnham, the couple has received tons of emails from lawyers and lay people evenly split between those who say Grillzilla should fight to keep its brand and others who warn of Toho’s tenacity in maintaining its intellectual property rights.
One person, a blogger from Japan who lived near the Toho Company’s headquarters, warned Burnham and Swett that the Toho Company would fight Grillzilla to the bitter end.
“They’re not going to back down,” said Burnham of Toho. She said that she and Swett were not interested in pursuing a lengthy legal battle.
Regardless of the outcome of this showdown, the owners of Grillzilla are trying their best to adjust to all the attention that their battle with Toho Company has garnered.
“It’s kind of weird,” said Swett.
