WWE lawyer comments on TNA Hardcore Justice

[whitewolf8214]

WWE lawyer comments on TNA Hardcore Justice
Posted by Roscoe De Soto on 08/06/2010 at 06:46 PM

Alfonso A. Castillo sent out the following regarding WWE Lawyer Jerry McDevitt’s comments on possible violations between TNA Wrestling and WWE, leading into this Sunday’s TNA Hardcore Justice PPV: I just posted the following on Newsday’s Steel Cage wrestling blog at Newsday.com/steelcage
I reached out earlier to World Wrestling Entertainment attorney Jerry McDevitt to ask if WWE had already, or was considering, taking legal action against Total Nonstop Action Wrestling for TNA’s promoting of this Sunday’s “Hardcore Justice” pay per view. The event is being hyped, in effect, as an ECW reunion, despite WWE owning the rights to the ECW name and intellectual property. I received this reponse from McDevitt:
“The WWE is the sole owner of the ECW marks, and as with all of WWE’s intellectual property it will be vigorously protected. TNA acts at its peril if its infringes upon WWE’s rights.” That can be taken to mean many things, but this much is apparent: TNA’s questionable usage of the ECW brand is on WWE’s legal radar. TNA could argue semantics and claim that they are not promoting an ECW reunion as much as a hardcore wrestling reunion, but that’s intellectually dishonest, at best.
TNA has done itself no favors by mentioning the E-C-W letters more than once on television in recent weeks, and featuring photos of past ECW events (photos presumably not owned by WWE.) TNA President Dixie Carter may be excited about the buzz and small uptick in ratings that the “Hardcore Justice” concept has created. But you have to wonder how quickly that excitement will turn into terror if she is served with cease and desist papers hours before the pay per view is supposed to go live.

 

[whitewolf8214]

i smell a lawsuit coming from vince what a better way to take out your nearest competitor even though tna is far from it yet.

 

[mogera]

C'mon. We can't honestly say we didn't see this coming. In the past few weeks they've been playing fast and loose with the whole ECW angle. The crowds chanting "ECW" alone was cause for concern here. This whole thing is a desperate act by a desperate company. It's actually sad considering that TNA has good YOUNG talent who know how to work in the ring. Management is a joke unfortunately.

 

[whitewolf8214]

C'mon. We can't honestly say we didn't see this coming. In the past few weeks they've been playing fast and loose with the whole ECW angle. The crowds chanting "ECW" alone was cause for concern here. This whole thing is a desperate act by a desperate company. It's actually sad considering that TNA has good YOUNG talent who know how to work in the ring. Management is a joke unfortunately.

very true.they need new management and creative and get rid of the geritol people

 

[Tvfan24/7]

C'mon. We can't honestly say we didn't see this coming. In the past few weeks they've been playing fast and loose with the whole ECW angle. The crowds chanting "ECW" alone was cause for concern here. This whole thing is a desperate act by a desperate company. It's actually sad considering that TNA has good YOUNG talent who know how to work in the ring. Management is a joke unfortunately.

Couldn't agree more. I don't blame Heyman for not wanting to come in. A company doing 8,000 PPV buys cannot be saved. It'll just continue to float around, until it eventually ceases to exist. Some people think that 2011 could be the end.

 

[Mr Tony]

sounds like the PPV companies told the WWE to back off

So let me get this straight.

WWE owns the word "extreme"? Even EVOO....er, EV 2.0?

Everyone knows that they have the legal right to the letters ECW; but now WWE, not being content to annhiliate TNA in buyrates, PPVs revenue, weekly ratings, and pretty much everything else short of match quality from time to time, now has intellectual property/copyright lawyer Jerry McDevitt chomping at the bit... suggesting that even a reference to ECW may infringe on copyrights.

Late last week, WWE intellectual property/copyright attorney Jerry McDevitt said in an interview to Newsday's Alfonso Castillo regarding TNA's Hardcore Justice that: "WWE is the sole owner of the ECW marks, and as with all of WWE's intellectual property it will be vigorously protected. TNA acts at its peril if it infringes upon WWE's rights."

(Note: this column is written and first posted on Sunday morning...) For God's sakes...does McDevitt want to have a process server slap fans with a lawsuit if they chant "ECW"? Does Tommy Dreamer have to shush fans if they DO chant it?

WWE getting self-righteous about this reminds me of a little child breaking a toy when it's about to be taken away by their parent, so no one else can play with the toy either. WWE couldn't make money with their bastardized WWECW show, so any show that might give a few guys a payday (and trust me, TNA isn't going to wind up making money off of this) should somehow be threatened. If it weren't for the PPV industry probably telling WWE to back off, I wouldn't be surprised if WWE would have tried to kill the show at the last minute to kill off TNA.

Hell, I use the phrase ECW Arena every time when referring to the building at Swanson and Ritnet in south Philadelphia. Becasuse that's what it is. Mind you, I'm not trying to make money by doing it as McDevitt is alleging TNA is doing. But these guys DID work for ECW. That's a fact. Is WWE going to say that Mike Tenay and Taz can't acknowledge someone as a former ECW Heavyweight Champion? Pre-determined as a title reign may be, someone having the belt is a statement of historical fact.

Before I get the inevitable e-mails scolding me...yes, I understand the concept of intellectual property. And yes, I agree that this PPV won't accomplish much, since it was no doubt done with the thought that Paul Heyman would be coming in alongside the former ECW talent...and without Heyman running the show, it's little more than a payday for the former ECW talent. It won't help TNA's long-term problems with lack of coherent storylines and profitability
But isn't this threat by McDevitt to sue if those those three little letters are somehow used WAY past overkill?

AS I SEE IT 8/8