WWF vs WWF: The trademark war

LONDON (AP) -- In this corner, The Rock. In that corner ... the Monarch butterfly?

The World Wide Fund for Nature, best known for its efforts to protect the panda and other endangered animal species, has gone to the mat with the World Wrestling Federation over the use of the initials WWF.

The federation, which uses www.wwf.com as its Web site address and inscribes the initials on hundreds of branded products, denies any wrongdoing.

The wildlife fund accuses the wrestling federation of breaking an agreement the two sides reached in 1994 over the use of the logo and trademark. It has filed a lawsuit in London seeking legal enforcement of what it insists are its trademark rights.

"The explosion in Web use and satellite and cable television means their use of the WWF logo is more widespread than it was," fund spokeswoman Anita Neville said Wednesday. "It's a long-running tussle. We felt that this was the correct time to take it up."

Jerry McDevitt, an attorney for the Stamford, Conn.-based wrestling federation, said the 1994 agreement allowed both organizations to use the WWF initials and to operate in "peaceful coexistence." He said the agreement never addressed the use of the initials on the Internet.

"Nothing in the agreement ever dealt with the Internet because the Internet wasn't anything back then," McDevitt said.

The fund predates the wrestling federation, and it registered its black and white panda logo with the letters WWF when it was founded in 1961. The fund changed its name 14 years ago, adding to the confusion. In the United States, it's still known by its original name, the World Wildlife Fund, which has the rights to the address, www.wwf.org. Elsewhere, it goes by Worldwide Fund for Nature.

Neville, a fund spokeswoman in Britain, argued that recognition of her organization's initials is part of what makes it effective as an international charity. The fund, headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, filed a lawsuit in April.

"It would be that same as if McDonald's were challenging someone over the use of the golden arches," she said.

But McDevitt said there is little chance anyone would confuse the two organizations. If the wrestling federation were forced to change its wwf.com Web address, he said, it would cause massive confusion.

"All these millions and millions of fans -- if the environmental group had its way -- would type in wwf.com, and instead of seeing everything they've seen for years ... are going to be directed to their site and learn about panda bears and whatever they're doing to save the world," McDevitt said.

The fund, whose Internet address is www.panda.org, backs conservation projects in some 100 countries. Among the creatures it's working to protect is the rare golden lion tamarin of Brazil, together with better-known species of elephant, tiger and rhinoceros.

In Mexico, the fund is trying to protect and enlarge a sanctuary for the migratory Monarch butterfly.

Neville said she doesn't expect to receive a verdict in the lawsuit until next April.