Mike Dockins Discusses WWE Keeping ‘Cody Rhodes’ Trademark Following Cody’s Departure

In 2022, every wrestler and company is trademarking everything. 

Mike Dockins, known as the “Gimmick Attorney,” has helped dozens of wrestlers file trademarks over the years as trademarking has become big business in the world of wrestling. 

One of the most famous trademark battles in wrestling as the fight for “Cody Rhodes” as WWE had the trademark and wouldn’t allow Cody to use it following his WWE departure in 2016. 

Appearing on Talk Is Jericho, Dockins provided some background on the battle. 

He began by discussing WWE wanting to own or change certain trademarks, but letting others go. 

“They are interesting in what they choose to enforce and not enforce. You’ll have guys who will leave, like Enzo Amore, who leaves the company and becomes nZo. Still “Enzo,” they don’t say anything about it. At the same time, this is company who said, there’s a guy, he works for AEW now, he was Taz with one Z, we’re going to make him Tazz with two Z’s. It’s bullshit. The explanation, from my understanding with my conversations with Taz was they said, ‘We’re gonna have a problem with Warner Brothers, but we don’t own it with one Z and that’s different enough,’ that’s not true. Phonetics matter. You can’t add a Z instead of an S, or an intentional mispelling and say, ‘these are different marks, they co-exist, we should get our on registrations.’ That’s not how it works, that’s not what the law says. That’s what gets fed because people don’t know better. Rhino with an I instead of Rhyno with a Y,” he said. 

It was noted that Dusty Rhodes could use his name everywhere and that Cody, being the son of Dusty, should have been able to use the Rhodes name. 

Dockins said, “‘Dusty Rhodes came first, what’s the difference? it’s a family name.’ It’s kind of a nonsense argument, but are you going to fight them? Are you going to burn that bridge fighting over an IP? Don’t burn any bridges, that’s the recommendation I give the new lawyers. If you can avoid it, avoid it, don’t burn the bridge. You just move on, but they don’t own Dusty Rhodes.”

Jericho pointed out that AEW would always say “Cody and Brandi Rhodes” as a way around things as they appeared on television together. 

Cody was able to get the “Rhodes” name back in November 2020 after reaching a deal with WWE. Dockins didn’t go into details on anything, just saying, “They own the registration, used to own the registration. There was something put into place. There were conversations that were had.”

Jericho noted that WWE doesn’t have a problem with Dustin Rhodes using the last name. 

Before Cody and WWE reached an agreement on the “Cody Rhodes” trademark Dockins did discover information that would have helped their case. 

Dockins began telling the story of his friend passing along the information.

“‘I found this Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling program,’ that was Dusty’s promotion in Florida. ‘Check this out.’ He sends me a couple pictures of it. One of them is a page of the Stardust Kid, Cody Rhodes, as a referee. This is years before he’s in WWE. He also went by Cody Rhodes his senior year when he wrestled in high school because he knew he was going to take a scholarship. I shut off the lawn mower, called my buddy, ‘send it to me immediately.’ This is evidence that he was Cody Rhodes before he was ever at WWE. Whether or not you want to spend money to fight them, but it’s pretty open and shut case, he was using Cody Rhodes in the wrestling space eight years before WWE. We didn’t have to do it, but the point was, ‘here is this proof,'” recalled Dockins. 

Dockins said he scoured the internet for video and photographically evidence of Cody using the “Rhodes” last name during his wrestling tournament as it aired locally at that time. 

Cody will reportedly be returning to WWE soon as he reportedly signed a deal with the company following his AEW departure. You can find more information on Cody’s return by clicking here. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.