British beer forced to drop name after Godzilla legal warning

A British brewer has been forced to ditch its proposed name for a new beer after a level threat was fired by the company that owns the rights to Godzilla.

Howling Hops Brewery, based in the hipster haven of Hackney Wick in London was forced to stop offering customers its Cogzilla pale ale following a cease and desist letter from lawyers representing Toho Co Ltd, who control the film right to Godzilla, after they were unhappy with the likeness of the name being printed on the bottle alongside the picture of a giant lizard.

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Having teamed up with a cycling cafe to serve the beverage during this summer’s Tour de France, the brewery have now been given a slap on the wrist for using the name and a “lizard-like, monster-like or reptile-like” logo that appeared too similar to the one that appears in director Ishirō Honda’s 1954 film.

“The letter was quite heavy handed. It was in lawyer speak and we had to get back to them by a certain deadline and sign a form saying we would destroy all images of that character,” said Howling Hops owner Peter Holt.

“I’m not sure if they realised that the beer was just for a limited time, really just for one summer. Perhaps they thought we wanted to roll it out nationwide.

“We laughed a bit when we got the letter. I think this has happened before with breweries calling their beers the same name as another brewery’s, but it’s hard to imagine how a beer could be confused with a film from the 1950s.”

However, in the letter, Toho Co Ltd’s lawyers said that they would not object to the company using the name alone providing it isn’t accompanied by the same or similar logo.

But Howling Hops have since said that they will begin serving the beer under a different name, though as of yet it is not known what that new name will be.