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GILBERTS VS. WWE LAWSUIT UPDATE

WWE filed a motion yesterday in the United States District Court in the Western District of Tennessee to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by Doug Gilbert and the estate of the late Eddie Gilbert.

In the motion, WWE stated, "Plaintiffs are seeking to profit from their alleged fortuitous appearance in the footage WWE acquired which they did not produce, in which they own no rights, and on which they never before have been compensated. Thus, this lawsuit in reality is an attempt by Plaintiffs to gain an unfair and unwarranted windfall at the expense of WWE and its co-defendants, ESPN, Inc. and ESPN Classic, Inc. (collectively, “ESPN”), for the exploitation of intellectual property to which Plaintiffs have no rights whatsoever. In contrast, WWE has invested heavily in the acquisition, creation, production, and distribution of such intellectual property, without which the works alleged in Plaintiffs’ Complaint would not exist. The law does not permit Plaintiffs to unfairly profit from WWE’s investment in its copyrighted works wholly unrelated to Plaintiffs."

WWE used previous lawsuits, including former AWA star Doug Somers' lawsuit against the company and former UWF wrestler Steve Ray's lawsuit against ESPN, both of which failed in the court system, to bolster their argument that the Gilberts had no claim to royalties from their appearances on libraries now owned by WWE.

In regard to the Gilberts' claims that WWE has invaded their privacy by airing old bouts and using Eddie Gilbert's image in the WWE Encyclopedia, WWE argued in their motion that such usage falls under the copyrights WWE owns via ownership of their video library.

WWE also claimed they are protected under the First Amendment in regard to the usage of Eddie Gilbert in the book, noting that the only claim that could be made would be if they published a “a knowing or reckless falsehood", which has not been alleged by The Gilberts.

Eddie Gilbert, who passed away in 1995, was seen regularly in the WWF from 1982 to 1984. Gilbert footage in the WWE library based on their acquisitions of the Mid-South/UWF library, Global Wrestling Federation library, ECW library and the NWA/WCW library. WWE is also utilizing footage of Gilbert in their forthcoming Jerry Lawler DVD as they have acquired material from the Memphis territory library for that release.

Doug Gilbert, most prominently seen under a mask as The Dark Patriot but also under his own name, would appear in the NWA/WCW library from the late 1980s as well as The Global library.

ESPN filed a similar motion to dismiss yesterday as well as The Network has been running old footage of Global Wrestling featuring Eddie and Doug (under a mask as the Dark Patriot) via ESPN Classic. While WWE owns the Global library, ESPN retained the rights to rebroadcast old material, which is why AWA and Global material remains in their rotation.

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