You may or may not know this, but there was a time when Hulk Hogan got in a legal fight with Marvel to be able to use his trademark wrestling name. The WWE Hall of Famer famously had to sign a 20-year deal with Marvel to use the name Hulk and that deal included giving the company a cut of his earnings, all because his wrestling persona was considered too close to The Incredible Hulk, which is just crazy to me. But, the opportunity presented itself when he was able to buy all of his trademarks from them for cheap.
He explained how 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 talk about how the opportunity presented itself for him to buy the trademarks back, 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
