Trademaking Hulkamania.....

[Cookie14]

We all know that WWE likes to trademake as many names and phrases as they possibly can these days to stop them being used anywhere else. But this was not always the case.

Ths trend began when WWE failed to trademark both the biggest name and the most well known phrase in wrestling during the 80's, Hulk Hogan and Hulkamania.
I want to know if WWE had trakemarked these, maybe even along with the yellow and red attire and 'Whatcha gonna do Brother', do you think anything would have been any different?

A few questions to consider......

Would 'Hulk Hogan' be the most recognisable name in wrestling if Terry Bollea had only been able to use in during his WWE tenure?

Would people have accepted the Hulkster if he had to go under a different name?

Would his WCW run have been any different if he had to be given a new name?

When he returned to WWE, would they have called him Hulk again, or used his WCW name?

Would TNA have brought him in at all if he didn't have the name recognition factor that comes from being 'Hulk Hogan'?

I've never seen this topic mentioned on here (which seems kind of strange, seeing as 'Hulk Hogan' is the biggest reason for trademarking the hell out of everything these days) so I'm looking forward to hearing opinions and discussion.

 

[GI Cake]

Hulk Hogan is wrestling. He was the biggest wrestler to ever wrestle in the squared circle, period. Hulk Hogan was huge, it didn't matter where he wrestled, even it was in Japan, AWA, WCW or the WWF. Now the WWE was huge back in the Hogan day's, but nowhere as big as Hogan. Even if Hulkmania was trademarked by the WWE, knowing Hogan's ego and personalty, he would have continued on wrestling as Hulk Hogan regardless. Lawsuit or class action it wouldn't bother him, because he could have turned it around on the WWF to make them look like the bad guys. It would have made WCW huge when you got the rebel Hollywood Hogan fighting the WWE and half the WCW roster.

 

[WWEvsJosh]

I think honestly it would have helped him more than anything. He would have had to change and would have to create a new star for himself. Then when he came back to WWE he would be hulk again and it would freash again.

 

[Davi323]

Neither Terry Bollea or the World Wrestling Federation owned the name Hulk Hogan, it was owned by Marvel Comics. (Hogan was originally billed as "The Incredible Hulk Hogan", an obvious trademark infringement). Rather than change the name that had already been established, the WWF paid a licensing fee to get Marvel's permission to use it, including all permutations of it, including Hulkamania, Hulkster, etc. When he jumped to WCW, WCW also paid a licensing fee in order to use the name. I would imagine that TNA has also paid a fee to use it, however it's possible that since then, Marvel has granted Terry Bollea unlimited use of the name, transferred ownership of it to him, or he simply continues to pay for permission to use it that allows him to still use it.

 

[Paralyzer Z]

A few questions to consider......

Would 'Hulk Hogan' be the most recognizable name in wrestling if Terry Bollea had only been able to use in during his WWE tenure?

I am pretty the man's look, would have made him popular elsewhere, but the name "Hulk Hogan" is the most known in wrestling history, so anyone not willing to capitalize on it would be an idiot. There is a chance he could have made it somewhere other than WWE with an alternative name, but the name would have probably never become as big as 'Hulk Hogan".

Would people have accepted the Hulkster if he had to go under a different name?

I think most certainly they would have, for the recognizable face only. Think of Rocky 3 for example, they could not use his name, sot they came up with "thunderleg"' or some thing close to that, and he was still a big hit there. If it was another Wrestling promotion, they would be a fool not to take him in. Again the name wouldn't be as big of a success as the Hulkster but, that is tough to match, and the man himself would bring prosperity in himslef.

Would his WCW run have been any different if he had to be given a new name?

He is and will always be most known for his WWE days. Even if he had just about one of the best heel turns in the history of the sport (NWO) , his WCW days are always put behind his WWE runs in order of importance and exploitation in the media. He would have made it big still, though not to the extent of his monster success in WWF.

When he returned to WWE, would they have called him Hulk again, or used his WCW name?

They would have called him Hulk again. Hogan is a product of the WWE and no one can take that away from them. Not even his WCW name would have been able to match the Hulkster name. It's their star, the most famous incarnation of Bollea so by all means they would us the name.

Would TNA have brought him in at all if he didn't have the name recognition factor that comes from being 'Hulk Hogan'?

Not a chance. Every move has a reason, TNA needed exposure, and they got just that with Hogan. He puts asses in seats just with his name value, end of story.

I've never seen this topic mentioned on here (which seems kind of strange, seeing as 'Hulk Hogan' is the biggest reason for trademarking the hell out of everything these days) so I'm looking forward to hearing opinions and discussion.

Just to let you know my Spell check detected minor spelling errors in your post. I fixed them.

.

 

[Cookie14]

I think most certainly they would have, for the recognizable face only. Think of Rocky 3 for example, they could not use his name, so they came up with "thunderleg"' or some thing close to that, and he was still a big hit there. If it was another Wrestling promotion, they would be a fool not to take him in. Again the name wouldn't be as big of a success as the Hulkster but, that is tough to match, and the man himself would bring prosperity in himself.

Mentioning Hulk's tv/movie career raises another interesting question. I know most things Hogan did outside of wrestling flopped, but would they have been as big as they were if he had not been able to be billed and credited as Hulk Hogan? I guess this would only apply to movies that he did outside of his WWE tenure though, as he would have been able to use it while still employed by WWE.

Just to let you know my Spell check detected minor spelling errors in your post. I fixed them..

I detected errors in the quote I used above, and have also amended them. Thanks for correcting my sloppy work. I wonder if other people will keep re-reading our posts to find the mistakes? Good post by the way

 

[Defekt]

The trademarks for "Hulk Hogan" and "Hulkamania" are actually owned by Marvel Comics. WWE never had the opportunity to trademark them, and has always licensed the rites to the names from Marvel (the same for WCW and TNA).

Bret Hart was granted the rites to the "Hitman" name by the WWE as part of a contract renegotiation, and it's possible Hogan would have also tried this. Considering his star power in the 80's, he'd have probably got it.

 

[AnthonyM4]

^I always wondered how Bret was able to use "Hitman" beyond wwe. Does anybody know when wwe started trademarking wrestler's names?

Back to the topic at hand. Hulk Hogan got his name I guess before wwe started trademarking names. It seems to me that wrestlers who got their names before the mid 80s own them(I.E. Greg "the Hammer" Valentine and Tito Santana"). It would have sucked if he used any other name in wcw. He may have not gotten over as big. I mean if wcw announced that Terry Bollea was coming to wcw back in 94 people would have asked "who?". On a side note, I remember on an episode of nitro Tony Schiavone referring to Macho Man and Hulk Hogan as the megapowers. Did Macho Man and Hulk Hogan co-own the name "Megapowers"?

 

[Harthan]

I don't know that trademarking the name would have really changed anything. WWE trademarks are pretty loose, anyway. They seem perfectly content if you just change a tiny little bit of the name, but keep the entire gimmick whole and pretty much do the same thing. Look at Mr. Anderson, for example. He's got the exact same gimmick and only changed a part of his name, and they're cool with it. If Hulk had had to go to WCW and get a new name, they probably would have just switched to Hollywood Hogan immediately and everything would still be the same. Hulk would have the same name recognition, would have had the same gimmick, and history likely would have been the same all around.

 

[DirtyD79]

I don't know that trademarking the name would have really changed anything. WWE trademarks are pretty loose, anyway. They seem perfectly content if you just change a tiny little bit of the name, but keep the entire gimmick whole and pretty much do the same thing. Look at Mr. Anderson, for example. He's got the exact same gimmick and only changed a part of his name, and they're cool with it. If Hulk had had to go to WCW and get a new name, they probably would have just switched to Hollywood Hogan immediately and everything would still be the same. Hulk would have the same name recognition, would have had the same gimmick, and history likely would have been the same all around.

Mr. Anderson is Mr. Anderson's real life name and if I remember correctly a company can't trademark someone's actual name. As for the gimmick itself I think it might be kind of hard to trademark too since there's a very good chance lots of guys have done similar characters. Like Doink the Clown they can trademark the appearance and the name Doink but they can't really trademark being a wrestling clown. Then again there sure are a lot of guys on the indy scene calling themselves Doink and even using the same exact appearance.