On Tuesday 19th March World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) opposed a trademark application by an independent wrestler Tatevik Hunanyan claiming the wrestler could not secure the trademark ÂSister Abigail for use in professional wrestling as WWE stated that it owns common law trademark rights to the mark after they created the ÂSister Abigail character and used it in connection with four performances.
Whilst the Mark is unregistered it is enforceable used to protect IP, in the USA the common law trademark starts when the mark is used in commerce for the first time. WWE have stated that the mark applied for is Âidentical in sight, sound and commercial meaning to its own trademark and therefore would likely cause confusion.
The notice stated Âthe Sister Abigail mark is uniquely and exclusively associated with WWE and has become indelibly linked in the publicÂs mind in exclusive association with and in exclusive sponsorship by WWE.Â
WWE alleged that the wrestler Hunanyan had Âexpressed a desire to portray the Sister Abigail character. WWE went onto say the wrestler had not portrayed the character and was Ânow attempting to usurp WWEÂs IP by filing the trademark registration.
WWE concludes that the use of Sister Abigail Âpredates any date of first issue which Hunanyan could rely on in her application.
