You could or could not know this, however there was a time when Hulk Hogan bought in a authorized battle with Marvel to have the ability to use his trademark wrestling title. The WWE Hall of Famer famously needed to signal a 20-year deal with Marvel to make use of the title Hulk and that deal included giving the corporate a reduce of his earnings, all as a result of his wrestling persona was thought-about too near The Incredible Hulk, which is simply loopy to me. But, the chance offered itself when he was capable of purchase all of his emblems from them for affordable.
He defined the way it all went down on the Theo Von Show: “We get a call from Marvel Comics. ‘You’re infringing on our mark. Reasonably similar. We’re going to sue you, put you in litigation.’ We let them have the name but didn’t license the name. I only had to pay them one-tenth of 1%. That went from 1985 to 2005. 20 years fast forward to 2005. It’s over.”
He continued: “Now, I can’t use Hulk Hogan anymore, and I’m red hot in 2005. I went to my attorney, ‘I don’t give a damn what deal you make, you’re going to make a deal because I need the name.’ What happened was, I got a one-year extension and I had to pay them 30% of everything I made. Movies, TV wrestling, they got 30% of everything, but if they decided to sell the name, they had to give me first shot at it. They couldn’t sell the name or do anything. Fair market value.”
He went on to speak about how the chance offered itself for him to purchase the emblems again, saying: “All of a sudden, Marvel Comics gets in a b—fest with WWE about intellectual properties, that they can’t re-air old Hulk Hogan matches. Marvel Comics lost. They owe Vince $35 million. They made a huge mistake. They said, ‘Instead of paying $35 million, how about we give you the Hulk Hogan name.’ I heard about it and went, ‘You screwed up now.’ Now, I don’t have to pay $35 million for the name, you have to sell it for me for fair money value,’ which is only $750 grand. I bought the name back. Vince wanted to buy the name from me. ‘Nah, I got this one.’ I bought the name back and I own everything.”
It’s sound like Hulk Hogan went through quite a stressful and messy situation with Marvel Comics, luckily everything worked out for him in the end and he will now own his wrestling name forever.
Source: Essentially Sports
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