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Comment by Kuinox | Hacker News Reader

zilla isn't a word reserved to Mozilla, there are other thing using this word, like godzilla, where mozilla name came from.

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Did Mozilla really came from Godzilla? I've always thought it was short form of 'Mosaic killa' (Mosaic killer). Original code of NSCA Mosaic was licensed by Microsoft Corp from Spyglass, Inc. (and so become a part of first version of Internet Explorer); while team which had written this code (Marc Andreessen et al) got venture funding from James Clark et al in 1994 to form Netscape Communications Corp and basically rewrite the browser from scratch. I.e. initial goal of that team was to kill NSCA Mosaic, their previous creation, hence the name.

I have a vague recollection of a Netscape Navigator README file on Linux that said this:

"Remember, it's spelled N-E-T-S-C-A-P-E but it's pronounced: Mozilla, the Mosaic Killer Godzilla".

some sources: http://fredericiana.com/2007/04/15/mosaic-killer/

> it was internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) by Jamie Zawinski

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologi...

> Mozilla Foundation – from the name of the web browser that preceded Netscape Navigator. When Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, created a browser to replace the Mosaic browser, it was internally named Mozilla (Mosaic-Killer, Godzilla) by Jamie Zawinski.[110]

Similar enough intellectual properties can lead to legal trouble if their domain overlap.

That's not how trademark law works. Nobody has words "reserved to them", the question is whether or not your average person could reasonably believe they are related to Mozilla.

I know. That’s why I said irrationally angry and not rationally angry.

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