bumping the IQ level again:
according to Toho the company that owns the copyright, Godzilla is a trademarked character whose traits include being described as prehistoric, fire breathing and schitzophrenic.
I'm not sure the cloverfield monster can be described as fire breathing or schitzophrenic.
and for the record, Toho inaccuratly described their monster in the last court case (toho vs. William Morrow) as fire breathing....Godzilla actually exhales irradiated super heated breath, not fire.
the story is copywritten, the creature is trademarked. both are pretty easy to work around, for example, as long as the monster is a mammal and not a reptile, or a was mutated by one type of nuclear material and not another, makes it a different monster, other wise, barney, the gieco gecko and TMNT would all owe money to Toho studios.
