Headnote of the Day: “Godzilla” is not descriptive

West has a fun, free feature where they pick a headnote and send it out to subscribers.  It’s not always amusing, but today’s was of high quality:

Even if trademark “Godzilla” was hybrid of Japanese words for gorilla and whale, trademark was not merely descriptive; large amount of imagination was required to associate trademark with giant, prehistoric monster, and, thus, mark was strong for purposes of determining whether likelihood of confusion resulted from alleged infringement.

Toho Co., Ltd. v. William Morrow and Co., Inc., 33 F.Supp.2d 1206 (1998)

Gorilla and whale?  I guess that explains why he’s always so angry about having to get out of the ocean.