We’re All Wednesday, Aren’t We? Trade marks in Professional Sport

With June seeing the start of the World Cup over in Canada, Mexico and the USA it seemed like a good time to revisit a wrangle over a football club slogan, WAWAW (We’re All Wednesday, Aren’t We?)

In March 2018, Sheffield Wednesday fan Paul Jennings, filed a UK trade mark application for “WAWAW.” It proceeded to registration in June 2018, covering a broad range of goods, from clothing to tobacco products. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this caused a bit of an uproar with the club and fans.

The club responded in 2019 by filing for invalidity, likely on grounds of prior goodwill and bad faith. Before the action could be determined, a settlement was reached, and in March 2020 the mark was assigned to Sheffield Wednesday. This was welcomed by many supporters as the “rightful” home for the slogan. But we think the legal consequences are a bit more nuanced.

Badge of Origin

At the heart of trade mark law is a simple principle: a mark functions as a badge of origin, distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from another. That requirement creates a dilemma for the club’s ownership of “WAWAW.”

Option 1:
If the club views the mark as a kind of guardianship, holding it mainly to prevent misuse by third parties, there is a risk. Unless “WAWAW” is actively used to identify the club’s own commercial output, or it is used by every man and his dog on products, the registration could, in principle, be challenged for non-use or failure to act as a trade mark.

Option 2:
Alternatively, the club could deploy and enforce the mark in the orthodox way: placing it on official merchandise and taking action against unauthorised use. But this strategy risks reputational damage. Because “WAWAW” is a phrase that the club recognised as having grown ‘organically’ from the fans. Heavy-handed enforcement could be seen as the club monetising supporter culture, eroding goodwill rather than protecting it.

To date, we’ve not heard of the club taking this approach.

Beyond Sheffield

This dilemma is not unique to Sheffield Wednesday. Brands across sport and entertainment face similar tensions when trying to capture fan-driven or community-generated expressions within trade mark law. Legal protection can safeguard against bad-faith registrations, but it can also put the brand in the awkward position of policing its own supporters.

Looking to the US; NFL stars, wrestlers, teams etc are all well across trade mark filings for this type of thing. Johnny Manziel is considered to be one of the first NFL stars to trade mark his brand, when he was at college level (specifically his nickname “Johnny Football”) before he was even drafted into the NFL.

His company applied for the trade mark “Johnny Football” in 2013 during his college career, to prevent others from cashing in on the nickname. He used LeBron James’ Management company to control his image and brand rights off the field, which was something largely unheard of for a rookie at the time.
Lamar Jackson protects his brand of 8 and filed against Troy Aikman using eight for athletic bags and clothing, arguing its use was likely to cause confusion in the marketplace (later withdrawn/dismissed in August 2025).

The Washington Redskins are now rebranded as Washington Commanders after their trade marks were cancelled, having been ruled disparaging to Native Americans, a move that prompted further significant legal debate.

Entertaining Sports

Away from football, Cody Rhodes is widely considered one of the first and most proactive modern World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstars to have trade marks specifically to protect his persona, catchphrases, and intellectual property.

After leaving WWE in 2016 he applied for trade marks for his in-ring name, his father’s nickname, “The American Dream”, and his own nickname “The American Nightmare”.
He popularised the use of a specialised trade mark attorney adopted by many other wrestlers to ensure they owned their names outside of WWE.

The Ultimate Warrior legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993 to ensure he owned his character.

Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) trade marked his wrestling name.

Hulk Hogan focused on licensing and protecting his name and likeness

Wrestlers often worked with no formal company-owned trade marks in the 1980s, but the 1990s marked a shift where WWE, then known as WWF (another Trade-marking story) began registering the intellectual property of their major stars to control their branding, which often led to long-term ownership disputes between the company and the talent.

So, as you can see, careful strategy is needed!

WAWAW?

Wednesday, or any other day of the week. If you’re a brand looking to trade mark your product and want to make sure it’ll hold up, you need someone in your corner who understands your business and trade mark laws inside out.

At Asenda Law we’ve got the expertise, and experience, to help. Get in touch today.