Video Reviews @ Stomp Tokyo - About our rating sytem and the LAVA® Motion Lamp

We're sure you've noticed the change. We used to refer to the units of our rating system under a more generic term, and we've switched to calling them "LAVA® motion lamps." A more cumbersome name, to be sure. Not nearly as much fun to say. But it's better than getting rid of them together, don't you think?

Here's the scoop: the LAVA® brand and the visual configuration you see at right is a trademark of a very nice company called Haggerty Enterprises, Inc., located in Chicago, Illinois. They are the original and only manufacturers of LAVA® motion lamps, those wonderful gooey blobular novelty lighting fixtures we all know and love. Unfortunately, if the more generic term "lava lamp" were to pass into common usage, Haggerty Enterprises would lose their ability to protect their trademark. Then any yokel with a machine shop could make shoddy lamps that don't work nearly as well and pass them off on unsuspecting folks like you and me, all the while calling it a "lava lamp." This has already happened with such products as kleenex, aspirin, and cellophane.

So when Haggerty Enterprises caught wind of our use of the image and the generic term, they sent us a letter asking us to correct the situation, either by discontinuing the use of the lamp image altogether, or by falling in line with their legal requirements -- calling the lamp by its proper name, and including a bit of legalese about the trademark at the bottom of our reviews. Loath to give up the lamps, which have become part of Stomp Tokyo's visual identity, we agreed to do as they asked and, over the next month or so, we will be changing all of our review pages to match the new standard.

No, we haven't sold out (would that we could!). We don't get any money out of this deal. But we do get to keep bringing you cool reviews of cult films and b-movies, and we do get to keep using the LAVA® motion lamp image as a symbol of late nights spent watching movies on TV.