Just a thought... or two...

Doesn't matter how good they are, People will still complain that they're not the same as Ruthless Aggression. I imagine Jakks will sell that figure style to the next company.

All I have to say is that Jakks better not end in 2009. I'd be pretty uspet if they did.

"Slogans, Names, Logos" Which would mean, Ruthless Aggression, Adrenaline & Classic Superstars.

WWE owns the name Superstars where it pertains to professional wrestling. That's why TNA can't call their wrestlers Superstars. WWE owns that. Jakks would not be able to use those names.

Sorry, I'm not trying to talk down to you on this or anything but I've dealt with both copyrights and trademarks for 10 years. This is how trademarks work, they are a way to own a name for use in areas of business. There are two ways you'll see them identified, by the R in the circle, which means it's a registered trademark and the TM which means the trademark is pending. Superstars is a WWE trademark, which dates back to the 80's. If there is any other company using the name in advertising or print labeling something or someone as Superstar, WWE would have rights to stopping their usage of it. Now, if someone is called "blank Superstar" on tv or radio, like a sporting event, I don't believe that pertains.

Whilst i do agree with you about not being able to use the term superstar when it comes to Professional Wrestling, Jakks as a toy company would probably get away with it, considering there are many generic wrestling figures you'd see in pound shops (or dollar stores i believe they're called in the USA) with the term "Superstars" on the packaging.

It would be a tough call, and obviously not something Jakks would risk anyway.

As for the other point you made about the use of "Ruthless Aggression" etc. in the form of a slogan, name or logo.. well, they would be the property of Jakks, as Jakks use those names to market their action figure line. The only connection WWE have to the term "Ruthless Aggression" is that promo vince cut in 2002 when he told wrestlers they lacked aggression, and continued to tell them they needed to get some "ruthless aggression".

WWE dont use the term classic superstars. They use the term "Legends". They dont have any connection with the names of the other lines, with the exception that Jakks use said names to promote and sell Action figures which just happen to be wrestling figures belong to WWE. There's no such thing as "WWE Ruthless Aggression". It is merely "Ruthless Aggression". Looking at a current RA box, the WWE logo is positioned at the bottom of the packaging, where the superstars name is, whereas the Jakks logo is positioned above, and close to, the words "Ruthless Aggression".

If anything, the line should technically be referred to as "Jakks Pacific presents: Ruthless Aggression".

...BigTime, is that you?

Yeah its a small glimpse of hope. But realisticly. Jakks could only do non WWE owned charcters. Limiting them to things liek the legends seires. So you woudl see no WWF gimics only ones owned by the individuals. So you doulcnt see elmadadore tito santan only more boring titos. Know what i mean.

I just hope WWE can see that the problemt hey had was with jakks thq video game division not the boys action figure division.

noo

If you are suggesting that the part tooling done by Jakks is owned by WWE, you're not only mistaken but you are quite obviously mistaken. While parts tooled to specifically represent a WWE superstar or trademarked attire would be effectively useless without a WWE license, the core parts and accessories are Jakks' work and can be used outside of the WWE contract.

More to the point, they HAVE been used outside of that contract. Do the Scorpion King and Rocky figures ring a bell? You misunderstand the nature of the business relationship here. Jakks isn't being hired to produce a product WWE owns. Rather, Jakks has paid WWE for a license to produce toys using WWE's intellectual property and trademarks. Their work, from sculpting to packaging design, is THEIR work. WWE can seek out another company at the end of the contract, but they can't take Jakks' work with them. That new company would start from scratch. While it is conceivable to some of Jakks work has contractual limitations on it, those limitations have to be in the contract and we've seen evidence that those limitations are at least not very broad. Jakks isn't working for WWE, strictly speaking. They've paid WWE to make and sell WWE products.

Could Jakks make unlicensed wrestling figures? Maybe. It depends on the contract, but its not impossible that there could be a no-compete clause that prevents Jakks from producing wrestling figures for a period of time after the contract expires. If they can produce wrestlings, there is no guarantee that they would want to. Without the WWE brand, it would be difficult to maintain retail interest in the product. Not unprecidented, though, as ToyBiz/Marvel Toys has shown us with their Legendary Heroes line. Those toys, frankly, had no business being offered at mass market but Marvel was able to sell them to the big toy retailers. At the same time, if its not successful, it could make those stores dubious of Jakks even if they had a potentially better product to offer.

Given that WWE has strongly positioned "Superstars" as its unique name for its wrestlers, I doubt they could maintain the name of "Classic Superstars". It may seem generic, but that sort of thing is upheld all the time and I suspect is a valid trademark. They key is how its being used as the protection would only apply to a wrestling context, but that is the context being discussed here. Anything derived of "Ruthless Aggression" is even more clearly protected by trademark and statute so those names would be out the window, too. Besides that, if they continued making figures, they would obviously want to brand them as a nostalgia line stemming from the CS line and not RA, DA, Adrenaline, etc. They might just opt for "Classic Wrestlers" to emphasize that they are wrestling figures. I don't see this happening, but it would be an option available to Jakks and given how much they have invested in parts during their WWE contract, the cost of starting a line like this could be quite attractive.

While an intriguing business model, I think you underestimate the costs involved with distributing figures like this. If Jakks did this, they would probably have to make the figures on contract to the Indie wrestler being portrayed who could then bring them around himself or sell them on a personal website. It'd be like when Ringside takes an exclusive. The problem here is that the entry costs would probably so high that few if any indie wrestlers could take the risks of moving forward on that. It would be worth exploring, but there would be good reason to think that the market just wouldn't exist for that kind of "vanity" action figure release.