Source: PWInsider
Impact Wrestling and The Hardys are fighting over ‘Broken’ Trademarks. It’s being going on for months.
Since Matt and Jeff Hardy have departed Impact Wrestling at the onset of 2017, the back and forth battle over the “Broken Gimmick”.
Matt Hardy filed the trademark for “Broken Matt Hardy” first, which the USPTO could see as confusingly similar. If GFW is going to get it, they’ll have to prove there is no conflict between the two. They’ll also need to indicate whether “Broken Matt” refers to a living person and if it does, Matt will have to sign off. Since Matt filed the trademark first, his application will hold precedence.
The trademark for “Brother Nero” was refused because Global Force Wrestling failed to indicate whether or not it was to identify a living person. If it does, they will need the consent of Jeff Hardy, whose legal middle name is Nero.
The trademark for “Broken Brilliance” was refused because GFW failed to specify whether or not the term has any significance in professional wrestling or if it is just a “term of art” in the wrestling business.
It’s likely the trademark for “Vanguard1” was refused because it is confusingly similar to a non wrestling-related trademark.
Further, all four trademarks also received initial refusal because the wordings used for identification and classification of goods and services in the initial filing were too broad.
