  Litigation gone wild... urlLink Newsarama is reporting that urlLink Marvel Comics is suing the urlLink WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and Terry Bollea $100,000, claiming trademark infringement. Terry Bollea's ring moniker-- Hulk Hogan, allegedly violates Marvel's trademarked name "The Incredible Hulk. " The lawsuit is apparently a renewal of one that started in 1985, when the WWE (then known as the WWF) was rising to popularity with Hogan as their biggest star. At that point, the still-low-profit WWF did not want to engage in an expensive, drawn-out legal battle with the publisher, so a royalties agreement was hastily thrown together. Marvel was to receive .9 of 1% of every dollar made by the WWE on Hogan-related projects, $100 for each match that Hogan participated in, and 10% of all the money the WWE received from Terry Bollea when he appeared outside of wrestling as Hogan.
The WWE also agreed to "image" demands ("incredible" could never be used in reference to Hogan, and the word "Hulk" could never be printed larger than "Hogan" in logos). This agreement was to last 20 years... and the twenty year period ran out on this year's July 6th. The WWE is now releasing years of archival wrestling programming on DVD, though... which means lots of Hogan (arguably the biggest star the "sport" has ever seen)... and lots of $$$ that Marvel would love to see in royalties.
Read the full article (which includes an in-depth history of the lawsuit) urlLink here . Bullshit, I say! Stan Lee and Steve Ditko may have named an irradiated Bruce Banner "the Hulk"... but they did it because ol' green genes was a behemoth... "one that is bulky" if we want to drag the dictionary out again today! Stan didn't invent the word. Look at Terry Bollea-- 24-inch Pythons!!! The Hulkster's a beast-- a "hulk," too! And he ain't green! Vince McMahon shouldn't have pansied out in '85... 
