“Bruno Sammartino” trademark and other similar incidents

Just read the new observer post and was amused by the Linda McMahon note about wwf trademarking Bruno’s name.


Did wwf actually try to trademark it, or were they just saying this to try and keep Bruno from using his actual name outside of the fed?

Was this the first time that Vince realized he needed to come up with new names for people, otherwise he couldn’t ‘own’ the names?

I know later he was able to figure out a way to own gimmicks created elsewhere (like those owned by ECW and WCW), but are there any other early cases where Vince tried to claim a trademark on a name or ownership of a gimmick but was unsuccessful?

​Pretty sure that was just an empty threat from Vince. However, he was definitely pursuing action against guys like Corporal Kirschner for using the same gimmick around this time, so it was on​ his radar as a tactic. Especially moving into the NBC era of the company, it’s understandable that he’d want to make sure that his characters were protected.