Lawyers for Mexican wrestling promotion AAA has threatened legal action against an American company that has booked Pentagon Jr. and Fenix on an upcoming show, but that company is fighting back.
According to a report at Pro Wrestling Sheet, Lucha Libre FMV (which is the company that is jointly run by AAA and Lucha Underground) had their lawyers contact Pacific Coast Wrestling in Los Angeles earlier this month, stating the following:
LL FMV is “the legitimate owner of the intellectual property related to the name, characteristics, characters and designs of ‘FENIX’, ‘REY FENIX’, ‘PENTAGON Jr.’ and ‘PENTA 0M’, among other trademarks.”
LL FMV had previously filed for a trademark on Pentagon Jr’s new name, Penta 0M (short for Pentagon Cero Miedo)--one week after he went public with his new moniker at a wrestling show in Tijuana.
“We are sending you this communication requesting you to cease and refrain from the unauthorized and misuse of the intellectual property.” the letter continues, “And also please avoid to hire any person that uses such intellectual property or any other confusingly similar."
LL FMV "has authorized and reserves its rights to exercise any legal actions with the corresponding authorities."
PCW, sent a letter of their own back to LL FMV this week, and they weren't holding back.
“While we thank you for your concern with making sure that we are not going to use the names of performers or characters legally owned by your client, we can assure you that we are only promoting performers by names that either the performers control themselves or which no entity controls as of this date.”
PCW rightly points out that Fenix filed his trademark for the name "Rey Fenix" on October 13, 2016, while FMV applied for trademark on that same name on January 30, 2017, and simply on the basis of him filing first, his trademark will likely be the one that's granted.
Also, Pentagon Jr filed his trademark application for the name "Penta 0M" on January 21, 2017, while FMV didn't file their application for the same name until a week later, and it won't even be heard in court until late April at the earliest, which means Pentagon currently has as much legal right to the name as FMV.
You can read the legal letters at this link, and we will keep you updated with the result of this dispute.
