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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2021 17:57:06 GMT -5
 If we have any experts, or at least people who know a thing or two about how trademarks work, was it ever really ever necessary for the WWF to constantly include the little TM symbol next to every wrestler or tag team's name on every bit of printed material, like VHS box match listings, etc? Like, if the WWF holds the trademark to all of the wrestlers' names, they own the names. No other promotion can use them. If any others tried, all WWF would have to do is show the documentation that they hold the trademark for the wrestler's name in court to get another promotion blocked from using it. Is it legally necessary to put TM on the box next to each and every name, every time?? I mean, as time went on, they stopped doing it. They just include one sentence in small print on the back that says they own all of the likenesses.  Could they have just done that all along, but chose to put a million TM's on the box instead? If you can shed some light on how this all works, please do. |
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Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Jan 19, 2021 18:36:56 GMT -5
Right, I'm not a lawyer, but I am a nerd so here's how I think it works and why it changed. The TM symbol is used to indicate they're an unregistered trademark to receive some limited protections under american trademark law, it makes it easier to fight rival companies if they start promoting their own Men on a Mission as they can point at this stuff and say 'This is ours, we've been using it longer and are the real deal.'. Names like Bret Hart and Bulldog are fully registered trademarks and have the R next to them as they've gone to the trademark office, paid the fees and got everything in black and white. I suspect in the case of Bret, Bulldog and Warrior, they may have done so themselves. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unregistered_trademarkThese days the WWE register everything they can before it's used on TV, so slapping TM everywhere isn't necessary, the copyright notice is enough as they've dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's. In the 90's they were still relatively new at the trademark game, plus those tapes are from a period of time where they were circling the drain financially, so spending money to register everything and fight any fights that came up may not have been something they could afford so a TM would suffice. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2021 20:54:00 GMT -5
Right, I'm not a lawyer, but I am a nerd so here's how I think it works and why it changed. The TM symbol is used to indicate they're an unregistered trademark to receive some limited protections under american trademark law, it makes it easier to fight rival companies if they start promoting their own Men on a Mission as they can point at this stuff and say 'This is ours, we've been using it longer and are the real deal.'. Names like Bret Hart and Bulldog are fully registered trademarks and have the R next to them as they've gone to the trademark office, paid the fees and got everything in black and white. I suspect in the case of Bret, Bulldog and Warrior, they may have done so themselves. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unregistered_trademarkThese days the WWE register everything they can before it's used on TV, so slapping TM everywhere isn't necessary, the copyright notice is enough as they've dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's. In the 90's they were still relatively new at the trademark game, plus those tapes are from a period of time where they were circling the drain financially, so spending money to register everything and fight any fights that came up may not have been something they could afford so a TM would suffice. If they didn't actually file trademarks for each wrestler back then, that makes sense. Thanks. |
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