Wrestlers face a fight over WWF name

In this story: Initials on the Internet An even match RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Gaven Morris, CNN.com writer

LONDON (CNN) -- How does a panda wrestle? In the courts apparently, after the conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature filed a suit challenging the World Wrestling Federation over the trademark use of the WWF initials.

The green charity, which uses the bear in its logo, has accused its American namesake of breaching a 1994 agreement over the moniker.

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WWF (the conservation group) is particularly riled about the WWF's (the wrestlers') stranglehold of the initials on the internet.

Anita Neville, spokeswoman for the World Wide Fund for Nature, said: "we feel we have certain rights that we have established under law and we'd like to have those confirmed."

The case is being heard in Britain where the original agreement was drawn up six years ago.

Then, it was the use of the initials on the fledgling internet that caused the dispute and now the world wide web has again sparked conflict.

Any net search for WWF elicits reference to "smackdowns," "royal rumbles," and "wrestlemania" but it takes a good scroll down the search results to find any references to non-human wildlife.

The conservation group claims a long-term lease on the initials as it first registered them as a trademark in 1961, along with its well-known panda logo.

"We registered both just after the organisation was launched 30 years ago. We're not really sure how they (the WWF rivals) were ever able to use the initials. I think it's just one of those common trademark infringements," Neville said.

The group, the largest conservation charity in the world, now wants the courts to enforce the 1994 agreement.

Neville said the details of the agreement could not be revealed as they are the subject of a confidentiality agreement.

A spokesman for the World Wrestling Federation, Jim Byrne, told The Times newspaper in London: "we do not agree with their assessment."

The company's business interests centre on the staging and promotion of wrestling events in the U.S. and Britain and their broadcast to an audience of up to 22 million a week.

The wrestling brand is growing rapidly and now turns over a revenue of almost $380 million.

That makes the court tussle a fairly even match; the conservation giant turns over more than $320 million a year.

The dispute is all the more intriguing because of the contrast between the respective organisations.

Featured is the non-profit, altruistic aims of a group existing to protect the planet's wildlife pitted against the aggressively commercial, fabricated violence of the wrestling federation.

But Neville says the court case is not concerned with the contrasting nature of the two sides: "It is purely a trademark issue for us."

She said the wrestling foundation had not yet revealed the details of its defence but the group was expecting the case to take "some time."

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WWF - World Wide Fund for Nature
WWF - World Wrestling Federation
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