In response to on-going speculation concerning our position with respect to the “Broken Brilliance” creative, I am providing this detailed log of our communications on the subject and the contractual structure of our relationship with Matt Hardy with respect to intellectual property matters (which is standard to our roster and in the industry).
There has never been any argument from Impact Wrestling that the Hardy’s were key contributors to the development of the characters and story line, or that Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy executed on their roles in spectacular fashion. But the position taken by the Hardys is a massive disservice to the contributions of the rest of the creative team at Impact Wrestling, including Jeremy Borash,
Dave Lagana, Matt Conway and Billy Corgan, and is totally at odds with the terms of their contracts.
The Hardys would have you believe that Anthem is somehow avoiding their lawyers to address this. This is the log of our communications with the Hardys and/or their lawyers. It is clear that we have not been avoiding them.
March 10 – EBN speaks with executives at ROH about “Broken Brilliance” being used in ROH shows. I indicated willingness to provide an arrangement that would allow the creative to be used in ROH shows and encouraged ROH to have Matt speak with me if he wanted to pursue that discussion
March 11 – EBN spoke at length with Matt by telephone about the structure of an amicable arrangement for use of the Broken Brilliance creative
March 14 – Matt sent text message to Ed Nordholm at 4:05pm:
“Tried giving you a call, it rang & went busy. I'm open to working things out amicably as we spoke about. The lawyer who represent me is interested in seeing your offer. My lawyer's email is {redacted} which you could send the offer to for review. Thanks.”
And I responded by text at 6:41 pm
“Thank you Matt. I was supposed to be [flying] into NYC today and am a little twisted. I will pull something together with [our] lawyers and try to get it over to your lawyer tomorrow or Thursday at latest“
March 16 – At 8:25 pm I sent an update text to Matt: “Hi Matt. My lawyer got me a draft too late to get reviewed for today. I will look at it in the morning. Sorry for the delay”
And he responded at 9:16 pm
“Ok, he's ready for it. Thanks for the update.”
March 17 – counsel for Anthem Wrestling delivered draft proposal to counsel for Matt Hardy
March 24 – counsel for Anthem Wresting followed up with Matt Hardy counsel requesting comments on the pr-oposal
March 27 – counsel for Matt Hardy responds that they have been away and have not reviewed the proposal but will be back “in the next few days”
After which no further communication until
April 18 – counsel for Matt Hardy leaves a voice mail message for counsel for Anthem Wrestling asking to arrange a meeting April 20 – EBN contacts WWE by email to determine veracity of internet rumours concerning WWE interest in Broken Brilliance April 21 --
WWE respond by email that there “is no interest on our end” {redacted email exchange attached} April 21 – counsel for Matt Hardy sends a follow up message requesting a meeting
April 27 – lawyers speak to arrange a meeting May 16 – lawyers meet but no agreement reached
Finally, I am attaching a copy of the relevant provisions of Matt’s contract with Impact. The clause is virtually identical to the corresponding provisions of every wrestler under contract with Impact.
The facts are that we tried to accommodate the Hardys for their Ring of Honour engagements, and have tried to elicit an indication from WWE whether they have an interest in using the Broken Brilliance creative in WWE. We are not hoarding it from WWE; WWE is not interested in it.
We fully respect the decision of Matt and Jeff to return to WWE and appreciate all of their contributions to Impact Wrestling. We wish them every success.
Our focus is on the future and we will not have any further public comment on this matter.
PWInsider.com confirmed with other Impact officials that the email from Nordholm was legitimate, as were the files that were attached.
The except of Hardy's contract features several highlighted passages that denoted that any original intellectual property created while working for Impact would become Impact's property under "work for hire" rules and that they would retain that ownership of the IP as well as the video rights to the performances, even after the contractual relationship between the two sides had completed.
The retracted email exchanged between Nordholm and someone from WWE revolves around online rumors that WWE was looking to get involvedin the situation between Anthem and the Hardys and that they were looking to use the "Broken" personas on WWE programming. The email exchange states, from the WWE side, that there was no interest in the characters.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
What do people not understand about how this stuff works?
It's up to the performer themselves to trademark things, that's why AJ can be his character anywhere he goes. It's written into his contract, same reason why Hogan could take his character from WWF to WCW back in the day.
All of these situations are not the same, it depends on what is written in the contract and whether or not the performer has applied for the status of ownership legally.
This is what any business would do, anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves out of some misplaced hope that they will see the broken stuff in WWE.
This is what any business would do, anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves out of some misplaced hope that they will see the broken stuff in WWE.
How does this benefit TNA in any way? Broken or not the Hardys aren't going back to TNA so what does this accomplish? All this does is make the fans angry and the wrestlers weary about ever going to TNA because of shit like this. How does TNA benefit by having exclusive rights to the broken gimmick? How? This can't be compared to other businesses because it's very different in wrestling. This does nothing to help the company, all it does is hut the wrestlers.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
Reby started mass tweeting about 20mins ago. Outside of the personal insults she claims the excerpt isn't from their final contract and their lawyers billables contradict Anthems correspondence logs. And that the IP is 100% Matts.
It's pretty clear now: Anthems assigned a price to the gimmick and no ones biting so Matt wants it for a massive price cut. But Anthem would rather sit on it than be lowballed as they know the gimmick only has value to one party who is incidentally the only interested party.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
After all the loyalty Matt and Jeff showed TNA over the years I really hope that talent see's how selfish the company really is. Id certainly never go back if I was them.
After all the loyalty Matt and Jeff showed TNA over the years I really hope that talent see's how selfish the company really is. Id certainly never go back if I was them.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
read some comments of 411, which isn't a Impact friendly that much and most of people admit Reby and Matt are wrong.
I guess at this point, after contract pdf, you have to be either a troll or have no clue on the situation, to be on hardy's side.
also saw someone wrote, that matt and jeff were loyal to the company for years, welp, where did that loyalty go in feb 2017? yeah, right. it wasn't loyalty, Dixie just gave them everything they wanted and once it stopped they left. Jeff owes TNA his rehab and his life (his words) and he stabbed them in the back.
Let's put the obvious financial gains for the WWE aside for a second, and just focus on the entertainment value: the "Broken" gimmick is one of the most over things in pro wrestling, and it helped keep the Hardys relevant, and re-energized.
Now, this red-hot gimmick will be collecting dust in a courtroom instead. It's sad really.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
Since the Hardy's didn't trademark the characters and other parts of the gimmick, Impact owns it.
It's the same reason WWE owns the name Cody Rhodes.
If the performer doesn't own a trademark for their character, the promotion it appear on tv for owns it.
It's a part of copyright law. Since Impact has proof that the characters and other features of the Broken Universe orginated on their show, and the Hardy's have no legal copyright or trademark on the it, the ownership of the characters and concept go to Impact. It's the same with all other forms art too. If a single writes a song but doesn't copyright it, and releases it with a label, the label owns it and just owns royalties to the singer.
Since the Hardy's didn't trademark the characters and other parts of the gimmick, Impact owns it.
It's the same reason WWE owns the name Cody Rhodes.
If the performer doesn't own a trademark for their character, the promotion it appear on tv for owns it.
It's a part of copyright law. Since Impact has proof that the characters and other features of the Broken Universe orginated on their show, and the Hardy's have no legal copyright or trademark on the it, the ownership of the characters and concept go to Impact. It's the same with all other forms art too. If a single writes a song but doesn't copyright it, and releases it with a label, the label owns it and just owns royalties to the singer.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
I may be wrong but didn't Impact claim legal ownership before March 1? If they did then Matt filing for a trademark doesn't matter.
If he didn't file until after they made their legal claim, his claim is void unless he can get a judge to rule in his favor. Now, if Impact hadn't filed a claim, he could use the gimmick whenever he wanted and would legally be able to trademark it. But if they filed their claim before he filed his, their claim is considered the legal one. They own it until a judge rules that Matt has more of a claim.
And the he only filed for ownership of Broken Matt Hardy as a stage name. If anything, it only would give him ownership of Broken Matt Hardy. It wouldn't give ownership of the term Broken Brillience or any of the other created terms. Jeff would be able to call himself Brother Nero simply by the fact that Nero is his legal middle name but, they might not have ownership of the "Broken Hardies" team name, or anything else other than Broken Matt and Brother Nero. Since Impact already filed for ownership of all the other content, Matt can't claim to own it, even if his trademark was filed on time.
I doubt that is valid trademark application, since it was filed AFTER the dispute over ownership started. If he had filed it while still using the gimmick on Impact, it would have been valid, just like it was when Bully Ray filed his trademark on his ring name. But since Impact claimed ownership before he filed it, it's not valid until a judge says so.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
Court of public opinion was decided a long time ago and has no bearing on the case. I dont get why Anthem even cares about it. Fans just want to see Matt do his gimmick and dont know/care about IP laws. I think theyll come to a compromise because it seems like its best for both parties. Anthem wont be able to monetize the trademark at all since the Hardys are never coming back.
Regarding Cretins post above...I think if the Hardys felt they had no case they wouldnt be yelling about it on Twitter. Theyd just be trying to acquire it. Based on Reby and Matts tweets about the situation I feel they are going to argue that Impact breached their contract with the Hardys (the Senor Benjamin/Maxel tweets). The other thing I would take note of is the Hardys financing tapings. I remember Total Nonstop Deletion being in limbo due to financing issues. Its never been confirmed but it seems the Hardys put money in for that to be done as well.
Court of public opinion was decided a long time ago and has no bearing on the case. I dont get why Anthem even cares about it. Fans just want to see Matt do his gimmick and dont know/care about IP laws. I think theyll come to a compromise because it seems like its best for both parties. Anthem wont be able to monetize the trademark at all since the Hardys are never coming back.
Regarding Cretins post above...I think if the Hardys felt they had no case they wouldnt be yelling about it on Twitter. Theyd just be trying to acquire it. Based on Reby and Matts tweets about the situation I feel they are going to argue that Impact breached their contract with the Hardys (the Senor Benjamin/Maxel tweets). The other thing I would take note of is the Hardys financing tapings. I remember Total Nonstop Deletion being in limbo due to financing issues. Its never been confirmed but it seems the Hardys put money in for that to be done as well.
All this trouble for a gimmick that WWE most likely wont even put on their TV even if Matt ends up owning it. Ridiculous. It's like two bald men fighting over a comb or shampoo.
Saying WWE isn't interested in the gimmick is the same as saying WWE isn't interested in making money.
They're already putting elements of it on TV. If they had no interest in the gimmick, they wouldn't allow Matt to incorporate elements of it into his current character.
WWE wants the gimmick for merchandising if for no other reason. But coming out and saying "We really really really really want it" is not a good place to start negotiations, whether they end up having to negotiate with Anthem or the Hardys. There's a good chance that WWE never uses the gimmick, but it won't be because they don't want to.
You see nary a peep about someone like Sandow not being able to be Sandow outside WWE yet Matt not getting to be "broken" has driven people batshit crazy despite being the same situation. Any smart company will protect it's Intellectual Property. It isn't something new in wrestling oir in the worls as a whole, this stuff goes on every where. It's good to know that people are such marks that they can't let go of a gimmick.
We're suppose to believe and take Anthem's word on that with their track record in short time they've taken over TNA/Impact? Sorry but it was always be TNA to me.
If WWE doesn't want to use it then why is Matt trying to gain ownership?
You missed the part where Matt filed a trademark. Anthem suddenly cares and responds once that was done. Between that and Hardys deciding to leave. Sour grapes by Anthem. Lets hold it hostage, despite the fact they're only hurting themselves by doing so. How do they stand to profit from the gimmick? If Matt didn't want the gimmick Anthem wouldn't even give a fuck at all.
Why would you wish that? Purely so that Styles, Joe and Ray couldn't use those names and that Impact would sit on them without really being able to use them?
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
Since Matt only filed for a trademark on Broken Matt Hardy as a stage name, even if he did file it on time, it doesn't bring anything else with it. He still won't be able to use any of the other phrases. So, no more final deletion, No more "Delete, Obsolete!" nothing. He would have had to file stuff for all of those catch phrases and terms.
But, I believe Impact had already filed their claims before he filed for his trademark. So, I do not believe he has any legal claim to Broken Matt. Not unless a judge rules in his favor.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
I think it's quite possible that the Hardy's lawyers have told them that Anthem has the law on their side in regard to the Broken IP.
The reason I think this is because their have been no filings at this time. If you don't legally defend your IP, you have in the eyes of the law abandoned it. In most courts if you lose, you must pay the winning party's legal fees. My guess is the Hardy lawyer has weighed the risk to out weigh the reward.
I also think the Twitter campaign by Reby indicates this as well. If a lawyer determined that they can't win in a court of law, he may have advised them they may win in the court of public opinion and be able to wear Anthem down to a point to where they say screw it and sell low.
Re: Full statement from Anthem Sports on the Broken Universe and a pdf of Matt's contract and communication logs between lawyers
Bottom line trademark your shit or you have only yourself to blame. Reby being an idiot escalated this mess, and now Anthem will probably fight this out to the bitter end. You don't go out and publicly slander a company, and then play the victim when they come back hard on your ass.
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