Last Thursday, a lawsuit was filed by Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Entertainment (GFE) against Anthem Sports & Entertainment and Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions, which is a subsidiary of the company that oversees Impact Wrestling. Jarrett is being represented by Samuel Miller of the Miller Legal Partners firm.
The news of the suit was first reported by Mike Johnson of PWinsider.com and the full suit can be viewed on the Pro Wrestling Sheet website.
In the suit, it alleges several charges that Anthem is in violation of, including copyright and trademark infringement, as well as tortious interference.
The suit stems from Anthem’s use of the Global Force Wrestling “Amped” series of shows that were taped in Las Vegas between July and October 2015. The series featured 16 hours of original content produced.
It was outlined in the suit that Anthem and Jarrett began talks in October 2016 regarding a potential merger between TNA and Global Force Wrestling, around the time Anthem was preparing to purchase a majority stake in Impact that would go through in January 2017.
Jarrett came on board with Anthem as a consultant in January 2017 and the two parties signed a term sheet in May. The term sheet outlined a process involving Anthem acquiring Global Force Wrestling with Jarrett becoming the Chief Creative Officer of the wrestling division. They allege that the term sheet stipulated that Global Force Entertainment would retain the rights to the “Amped” series. (Correction: In the suit, GFE stated in the term sheet that it owned the “Amped” content and that Anthem was proceeding to purchase GFE, the purchase was never completed.) They stated in the filing:
Even though Anthem Wrestling and GFE did not merge, and despite Anthem Wrestling’s acknowledgment of GFE’s ownership of all GFW Amped content, Defendants reproduced, distributed, publicly displayed, offered for sale, and sold the GFW Amped content without providing any compensation or royalties to GFE or Mr. Jarrett.
After a series of events involving Jarrett, who ended up going into rehab, he was dismissed by the company in October. It was later revealed that the merger never went through and that is where Jarrett contends that Global Force Entertainment control the rights to the “Amped” episodes that Anthem has continued to market.
The suit points out that the “Amped” series ran as a four-part pay-per-view in late 2017 and is available for purchase on DVD through the Shop Impact site. They also point to the similarities between their intellectual property and the Global Wrestling Network streaming service with a similar naming and color scheme.
Jarrett’s side has requested a jury trial and is seeking an award of punitive and/or treble damages for at least three times the amount of the defendant’s profits or Global Force Entertainment’s damages, whichever is greater.
