Just a thought...
 

So what would happen if someone went to a WWE show with a WWF (World Wildlife Fund) shirt? Would the WWF be able to sue WWE?

WWF would sue themselves. Hey why not, most of what they do equates to masturbation anyways.

Thats one way of putting it!

Unless they were on-camera for a good portion of the show and were making sexual gestures, I doubt it.

No.

Well, technically yes. You can sue for anything, but they'd be laughed out of the court room.

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Sexual Harassment Panda: WE'RE GONNA SUE YOU!

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Mr. Garrison: Ooohhh crap, he's using the Khali defense.

Who the fuck would wear a WWF t-shirt?

Basically, no. Or, as Destor said, yes, but they'd have no grounds.

A Trademark operates on the concept of market infringement. A fan in the audience is not an indication of endorsement of WWF on behalf of the WWE and cannot be argued as such. A wrestler wearing such a T-Shirt MIGHT count (and most people would be smart enough to avoid that), but simply seeing a fan on TV will not. However, WWE has removed some people for the old WWF logo, so there's also a chance they'd force the fan to remove the shirt or oust them.

WWE did threaten a lawsuit against TNA for crowd reactions, but that lawsuit didn't go anywhere. It really only works if there is some reason to believe the company is claiming endorsement or tie to the trademark holder.

Legally, every fan in the audience could have WWF shirts on and start chanting "We hate Pandas *clap clap clap*" and the recourse would be limited unless it could be demonstrated that WWE was behind it.

What crowd reactions were these, out of curiousity?

I believe ECW chants.

Speaking of which, while we're on the subject, how legal was it for Team 3D to bring out the WWE, WCW and ECW tag titles on-screen? I mean, all three are technically WWE property, and they're trying to gain from the fact that they were at least once a part of that company. It's one thing to mention in passing they were ECW champions, but to bring out the actual titles (well, replicas)?

Also I seem to remember someone (possibly BG James) wearing an old Jarret WWF shirt, what about that?

Yeh I was just thinking about that whole title thing. Didn't (allegedly) Rhino have the ECW World Title in a bag a while back and set it on fire, and he said he couldn't show it on TV because he didn't want TNA to get sued? How could the Dudleys pull all those belts out like that?

He didn't actually burn the belt.

Yeh I know, but I was just thinking about what he said and then the Dudleys go and show all those belts on TV.

they'd probably give you a WWE shirt to wear instead....

The original belts are WWE property. The replicas are not.

Now, I think that showing the belts skirts the line of what's acceptable. You can still be sued for using a trademark for self-promotion (Brian Wilson's being sued for saying he's a former Beach Boy), but it's incredibly hard for the owner to win those cases. Bringing out the belts still isn't technically claiming endorsement, but it certainly steps into market confusion.

As for wearing a Jarrett Shirt, they might be able to get away with it because they don't own Jarrett's name. I don't know the shirt, so I don't know if there was a visible logo. I don't know how much they actually showed, etc.


Could be they felt they were legally more sound in showing the belts than burning them. It could be that they are trying to provoke WWE now, or it could be they're idiots and lucky Vince still doesn't want to acknowledge TNA.

To be honest: I don't fucking know. It's an odd situation, and I think it's just over the line. It's probably not in Vince's interest to sue over something that isn't a surefire deal.


...Granted, that confuses the fuck out of me, because there was the deal with ECW chants. There is virtually NO chance for a legal victory there (If that was the case, WWE would have been sued many times over for crowd chants).

Trademarks can get kind of screwy at points. Mostly, it's pretty clear cut. It's just hard to define where "market confusion" really begins when it comes to whether or not someone else's intellectual property is on the line in a case of something physical like a belt or whatnot.

The other option is that the WWE could make a roundabout argument for Defamation of the ECW title or whatever, but I think that's probably a bigger stretch.

I would pay a shitload of $$$ to see that.