Do you also think that just because ADV happened to be the first company to lisence Neon Genesis Evangelion it would had the right to trademark it in the western countries so that Manga Entertainment, Viz and Funimation should pay ADV for the use of NGE, instead of straight to Gainax? Fortunately that's not the case. NGE tv series was licensed by ADV, the first two movies by Mange Entertainment, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's manga by Viz, Angelic Days manga by ADV and the new movies by Funimation. None of them own the trademark of Neon Genesi Evangelion, rightly so. Harmony Gold seems to be the only (ex) licensing company I know that has trademarked a show it only distributed. Even Disney hasn't trademarked Ghibli movies and I couldn't find trademark notices even in my Gundam DVD:s licensed by Bandai Entertainment.