On Friday, August 10, 2001,
AP reported that due to extensive violation of their
contract with the
World Wildlife fund, the
World Wrestling Federation would have to curtail their use of the initials "WWF" in
marketing and promotions, and relinquish the
domain name wwf.com to the environmental organization. The contract in question was made in 1994 to permit limited usage of "WWF" by the organization formerly known as the "
WWWF".
One hopes the entire WWWF management does not share the apparent contempt for the WWF that appeared in their lawyer's statement:
"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,"
- Jerry McDevitt, World Wrestling Federation lawyer
Update, May 8, 2002: The former World Wrestling Federation has changed its name to "World Wrestling Entertainment" but is still listed on the
NYSE as "WWF".