WWE Rumors: Update On Matt Hardy’s Broken Universe Copyright Battle, Did Impact File For Trademarks First?
As we now know, Impact Wrestling’s latest move in the “Broken Universe” copyright battle was to trademark the names “Broken Matt,” “Brother Nero,” and “Vanguard-1” and the term “Broken Brilliance” late last month. This was despite Matt Hardy applying for a trademark to the first name on March 1, almost two months before Impact made its move. Now it seems that Impact might not have applied for the aforementioned trademarks as recently as once thought, and may have even beaten Hardy to it by a couple months.
On Tuesday, WrestleZone reported (c/o PWInsider) that based on sources close to Impact Wrestling, the Broken Universe copyrights supposedly filed by Impact on April 28 were actually filed three months prior to that, in January of this year. Should this report be accurate, that would mean Impact, back when it was still known as TNA, had applied for copyrights to four staples of the Broken Universe — three names and one Matt Hardy catchphrase — while Matt and Jeff Hardy were still working for the company.
It was only on April 2, at WrestleMania 33, when the legendary Hardy Boyz returned to the WWE, winning the RAW Tag Team Championships on their first night back. But as a result of the ongoing battle between WWE and Impact for the rights to the Broken Universe, as well as the related copyright filings, both Matt Hardy and younger brother Jeff (aka “Brother Nero”) have done their best to compromise, oftentimes acknowledging “delete” chants from the WWE Universe but playing it safe and minimizing their Broken Universe references.
The days of "working" figures & statistics (aka lying) in this industry are OVAH.. Especially government documented records. https://t.co/CHCi0QTAEo
— MATT HARDY (@MATTHARDYBRAND) May 9, 2017
With this new chapter in the Broken Universe copyright feud, both Matt Hardy and his wife, Reby, took to Twitter, with Matt replying to Reby’s tweet and accusing Impact Wrestling of manipulating government records. According to PWInsider’s report on Matt and Reby Hardy’s reaction to the new claim, the government records show April 28 as the date Impact applied for the four Broken Universe names/terms to be copyrighted.
Staying out of character and straight to the point as usual, Reby Hardy again accused Impact executive producer Jeff Jarrett of trying to make the company look like it has more leverage than it really does.
“If that were true, they would’ve gone through the patent office long before mine did. Don’t buy bulls**t reports from ‘source’ Jeff Jarrett.”
Reby had also tagged Jarrett in a subsequent tweet, directly alleging him of creating fake news to make Impact look good in the eyes of wrestling “dirt sheet” writers.
“How desperate & pathetic do you have to be to be sending fake reports to dirtsheets tho?”
Matt Hardy says ‘Broken’ rights battle shows Impact Wrestling doesn’t care about fans https://t.co/OAEcB9Tpgi pic.twitter.com/x1hg72LAAG
— Cageside Seats (@cagesideseats) May 7, 2017
This comes less than two weeks after she made a similar claim about this high-ranking member of Impact’s upper brass. According to Cageside Seats, Reby alleged that it was Jarrett who told wrestling “dirt sheets” that the Broken Universe copyright battle was won by WWE when it successfully bought the trademarks from Impact, when no such deal had actually been closed.
On a related note, the Inquisitr wrote on Monday about how wrestling fans had concluded that Jeff Jarrett’s wife, Karen, an executive consultant for Impact, was referring to Matt Hardy’s wife, Reby, when she sent a tweet asking an unnamed person to “shut the f*** up.”
Although there’s a lot of intrigue surrounding The Hardy Boyz and their ongoing Monday Night RAW feud against Sheamus and Cesaro, one can argue that the real intrigue is going on in real life and away from the cameras, as the Hardys hope to win the Broken Universe copyright battle once and for all. And at the rate things are going, the plot is still thickening with each passing day, with each tweet sent by Matt or Reby Hardy and each move made by the higher-ups at Impact Wrestling.
[Featured Image by WWE]
