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The Hollywood Reporter has a story today noting that former WWE wrestler Rene "Dupree" Goguen has filed a lawsuit against WWE over how royalties should be paid to performers for content that features their likeness when it airs on The WWE Network.
In the suit, which was filed in a Connecticut Federal court yesterday, Goguen has asked that the "booking contract" that he signed in 2003, which gave WWE ownership of using his likeness and made it their intellectual property, be interpreted to include payment for "technology not yet created." This is similar to the claim that Jesse Ventura made years ago against the then-WWF for using his likeness on products that had not been created at the time that the footage was recorded, such as videotapes. Of course, Ventura won that case.
Goguen has filed the suit as a class action effort to get royalties for all of the talents that signed contracts with WWE and any other company whose footage WWE has purchased, going back to 1980.
Obviously, this is a huge case for WWE. They will need to fight this one with everything they have because losing here would be very, very costly.
WWE did not return the media outlet's request for comment.
You can read their story by clicking here.
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