Hulk Hogan has been in the middle of a legal battle with Marvel Comics over his ring name.
During a recent appearance on Theo Von's podcast, "The Hulkster" spoke about being able to legally use his Hulk Hogan ring name despite Marvel owning the term "Hulk."
“Right when Hulk Hogan takes off, we get a call Marvel comics," Hogan said. "'You’re infringing on our mark. Reasonably similar. We’re going to sue you, put you in litigation.’ We let them have the name, didn’t license the name. I only had to pay them one-tenth of 1%. That went from 1985 to 2005. In 2005, it’s over. 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.'"
Hogan continued, "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. All of a sudden, Marvel Comics gets in a bitchfest 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."
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Jeremy Lambert for transcribing the above quotes.
