During a recent episode of Kliq This, Kevin Nash provided some insight into the world of wrestling trademarks and merchandising. Here are the highlights:
John Cena’s real name being trademarked by WWE:
“It should only be able to be registered, but not trademarked. And then you would have to sign a merchandising agreement. I don’t see how they can trademark it.”
How valuable the nWo trademark is:
“[WWE] owned the nWo. So we got a percentage of that from the WWE. The faction makes way more money than “Kevin Nash” does. The nWo was the homerun. If I could pick owning either the nWo trademark solely 100%, or owning “Kevin Nash” in the realm of wrestling? I’ll take the nWo.”
How much WWF had to pay Marvel to use the Hulk trademark for Hogan:
“It was Marvel, and [WWF] paid, I wanna say one hundred grand, to use the Hulk trademark.”
The issue with trademarking Diesel for merchandising:
“You know what the problem is with Diesel? So when they said they were gonna call me Diesel, I said “can we spell it with a Z?” They looked at me like I was fucking insane. But I had lived in Europe and played basketball over in Germany. Diesel jeans were nothing in the States at that time. There wasn’t a Diesel brand. For merchandise, they always had to put Diesel “power.” They always had to put something else, they could never just put “Diesel.”
