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Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball
Apparently Billy Corgan's attempt to buy NWA hit a big snag and all because someone forgot to check to see if NWA trademarks were still active during talks.
Turns out they were not.
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Originally Posted by PWI
Multiple sources have told PWInsider.com that the deal is described as "in jeopardy" due to issues regarding the transfer of the existing copyrights and trademarks for the National Wrestling Alliance.
PWInsider.com research indicates that the copyright and trademark on the brand name lapsed last year with his International Wrestling Corp, LLC applying for it again on March 30th of this year. The trademark has not been officially assigned, theoretically making it impossible for them to be transferred to Corgan.
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New twist to this story involves the Patent Office partially suspended the new trademark request by NWA owner Bruce Tharpe due to the application being terrible overall.
Wording of the application managed to infringe on a NWA-like trademark owned by another company(s) and didn't prove the NWA itself was still an active company.
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Originally Posted by PWI
The United States Patent and Trademark Office partially suspended Bruce Tharpe's registration of the National Wrestling Alliance trademark (which was filed for back in March after it expired in December 2016) on 6/4 due to "a likelihood of confusion with a registered mark and under Trademark Act Sections 1 and 45 for failure to show the applied-for mark in use in commerce with any of the specified goods in Class 25. The applicant was also informed that the marks in two pending applications present a potential bar to registration under Section 2(d), if registered. In addition, applicant was required to provide an amended definite identification of goods, provide information relevant to examination under 37 C.F.R. §2.61(b), clarify the mark description, provide clarification regarding the claimed dates of first use, and provide clarification regarding the applicant’s claim of concurrent use."
It appears based on the ruling that the issue at play is related to merchandising of the NWA brand, specifically that the NWA name may come into conflict with other existing applications featuring a similar brand name and that Tharpe, in his application, did not show adequate proof that the brand was currently being used in commerce, i.e. was actually being sold.
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Corgan and Tharpe are still in talks for Corgan to purchase NWA rights but at the moment, nobody knows if Corgan can still get the full rights or how much of the deal has to be changed due to these problems.