ROH News: Note on The Spirit Squad’s Debut, Ongoing Lawsuit Over Title Belt Design Copyright Issues

– Kenny Dykstra and Mike Mondo debuted doing their Spirit Squad gimmick at the weekend ROH TV Tapings. They were originally to debut at the last Hammerstein Ballroom event, but those plans were changed when Matt and Jeff Hardy became available and signed their short-term deal.

– There is an ongoing lawsuit in the United States District Court of Virginia regarding replica Ring of Honor championship belts. Parks, Millican & Mann LLC (the company that designs and produces championship belts for a number of wrestling companies) has sued Rhodes Island’s Figures Toy Company for removing their copyright on replicas of the ROH championship belts and replacing it with a copyright for Ring of Honor Wrestling in September 2016. The suit states that the two sides were in negotiations regarding the replicas but never finalized that agreement and that Figures Toy Company moved forward with production of replicas, belts for action figures and rings without PM&M’s consent.

PM&M created the belt designs for ROH and maintains the copyright over those designs and has not sold those rights to anyone else, beyond providing the championship belts to ROH. The lawsuit claims ROH came to PM&M about Figures producing replicas and PM&M entered into negotiations and provided samples that included their copyright. The suit further claims that no agreement was signed and the versions that were created did not carry the PM&M copyright. In November, PM&M added Ring of Honor as a defendant, claiming that they allegedly entered into an agreement with Figures Toys while knowing they did not own the designs of the belts, allegedly approved the designs of the replicas with the remove copyrights and allegedly infringed upon PM&M’s copyrights “for their own commercial gain.”

The suit states that Figures Toy Company has sold $60,000 worth of replicas and has another $100,000 worth of stock plus an unknown amount of rings and action figures featuring those belts as well; PM&M also alleges they have never been paid any licensing royalties on the items. PM&M are seeking $25,000 per violation, plus interest as well as an injunction preventing the sale of the belts. Figure Toys filed a motion to dismiss, alleging that PM&M failed to state an actual claim; there is a hearing today regarding that motion.

Credit: Pwinsider.com