Indy wrestlers Caleb Konley (Mason Burnett) and Zane Riley (Matthew Riley), known as The Revolt, have sent a cease and desist letter to Cash Wheeler (formerly Dash Wilder) and Dax Harwood (formerly Scott Dawson) for attempting to use the team name.
Here is an excerpt of the letter from the indy team’s lawyer courtesy of PWInsider.com:
“The Revolt are well-known in the independent professional wrestling circuit and are the current PWX World Tag Team Champions. Mr. Burnett and Mr. Riley sell a range of Revolt-branded merchandise including t-shirts, hats, and DVDs, as shown in Exhibit B. The Revolt has been their passion for years and they have literally put their blood and sweat into building The Revolt brand and connecting with their fans.”
“Dax and Cash may enjoy playing heels, but this is not the ring. They cannot steal their former friends’ intellectual property without consequence. Their conduct is not only unlawful, it is truly shameless that they would willfully steal a name from those that worked so hard to build it up.”
The lawyer for Wheeler and Harwood issued the following response:
“There are a number of fundamental errors and flaws in not only what your clients have represented to you, but also in the allegations you have levied in your letter. First and foremost while our respective clients were acquaintances with one your clients and aware of his participation in the wrestling business, they are able and willing to testify under oath that they were not aware of and, at worst, have not recollection of ever knowing of your clients’ claimed rights in a REVOLT-inclusive trademark.”
“Secondly, our clients do not intend and have never intended to call themselves FEAR THE REVOLT. They have at all times and in every way made it clear that their tag team name would be FTR, and that FTR can and would mean different things depending on their storyline and creative. They are not responsible for and cannot be held responsible for dirt sheets and others incorrectly attributing to them a name other than the name they have chosen, FTR. In fact, when your client reached out to my clients “as friends” to resolve this matter they were informed that the the team name is, was, and will be FTR and not REVOLT or THE REVOLT or FEAR THE REVOLT.”
“The entire purpose behind use of the word ‘revolt’ and ‘fear the revolt’ was a commentary on our clients’ departure from the WWE; they ‘revolted’ against the establishment. As you may know, descriptive fair use permits use of another’s trademark to describe the user’s products or services, rather than as a trademark to indicate the source of the products or services. This usually is appropriate where the trademark concerned has a descriptive meaning in addition to its secondary meaning as a trademark. In this instance, the word ‘revolt’ clearly has a descriptive meaning and may be freely used by our clients or anyone else in the wrestling business.”
“If your clients are willing to discuss a reasonable and mutually-beneficial resolution, and one that includes a public apology to our clients, we will take it back to them for consideration.“
credit NoDQ.com