GFW’s Application For Matt Hardy Trademarks Denied

– Global Force Wrestling’s trademark filings for the Broken Universe gimmick have been denied. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has given an initial refusal to the registration of four trademarks applied for that relate to the Hardys’ gimmick from the company per PWInsider. They are Brother Nero, Broken Brillance, Vanguard1 and Broken Matt.

GFW (under TNA at the time) filed trademark applications for the gimmicks on April 28th as standard character marks for merchandise including DVDs, clothing, posters, and the like, as well as “ongoing wrestling exhibitions.” The applications were filed over a month after Matt Hardy filed his own trademark for the gimmicks. Hardy’s own application was given initial refusal in late May.

According to the site, GFW’s Broken Matt trademark was refused because of likely confusion with Hardy’s own filing for the trademark. Once the company files valid evidence that there isn’t a potential conflict between the two, the application will be suspended so the office can come to a decision on Hardy’s application. GFW also needs to indicate if “Broken Matt” is in reference to a living person. If it is, then they need Hardy’s consent. Similarly, Brother Nero was refused because GFW needs to indicate whether it identifies a living person. They will need Jeff Hardy’s consent in that case.

The USPTO refused “Broken Brillance” because GFW has to specify if it has significance in wrestling or is just a “term of art” in the wrestling industry. Finally, Vanguard1 was refused due to likely confusion with a different, non-wrestling trademark.

The four trademarks were also refused as the wordings used for the “identification and classification of goods and services were” were too vague.