Talk:Zilla/@comment-1191001-20150101040607/@comment-25285745-20150101044558

I think we kind of overreacted as a site to Keith Aiken's statement, just because he is a reputable source. The fact is, sources just as reliable as Aiken contradict his claim, so we can't really be sure who's right.

I'm pretty sure that a name change did occur, but Toho didn't undo TriStar's copyrights and licensing for the 1998 film based on what we've seen. The 1998 monster was rebranded and retrademarked as Zilla, but these new copyrights were never applied to the 1998 version of the monster. So the 1998 monster is still Zilla, not a different unrelated character as Swe still believes. Toho did not trademark a parody of the 1998 monster, they trademarked the 1998 monster himself under a new name. This is still legally confusing and I'm waiting to hear an official statement from Toho about it. I'm sure Sony or TriStar would deny a name change, but Toho might give a definitive answer. I think Matt Frank's statement might be the most accurate. He says the only distinction between "Godzilla 1998" and Zilla is name, and aside from that they are the same character.