1. Rights for a Godzilla animated series was canceled. Have you seen any new episodes of Godzilla the Series lately?Godzelda wrote:http://www.trademarkia.com/godzilla-75423143.html
http://www.trademarkia.com/logo-75503990.html
http://www.trademarkia.com/logo-75503991.html
I trust an official trademark website more than an illustrator who claims that Toho couldn't change the name of the monster if they wanted to (even though they own the rights to the character) and cites the fact that the 1998 film is still called "Godzilla" as proof of this (Sony owns the rights to the film itself, so only they could change its name). The way I see it, we don't have any definitive proof either way.
But anyways, even if he/she/it is still legally called "Godzilla," a mutant iguana that runs away from the military, has no atomic breath, and is killed by regular missiles is still not really Godzilla. At best, he/she/it is a completely separate character that just has the same name as the King of the Monsters.
2. Design logo used for Merchandise, in 1999 Toho reverted back to the original logo. therefore they never renewed it..
3. Ditto, Toho reverted back to the original Baby Godzilla logo.
I mentioned earlier in this thread (I think it was this thread) that some of the earlier products for G'98 used the old logos in the trademark. You must keep in mind that Toho made the new logos before people saw the design, back when they likely believed that Godzilla was going to look like "this" from now on (There was supposed to be sequels and such). Obviously once they merchandise for G'98 stopped and G2K started production, there was no point in having two logos for one trademark, and the G'98 franchise's future was pretty much dead at that point.