Not only can Dwayne Johnson smell what The Rock is cooking … but he can monetize it now, too.
Last month, WWE owner TKO Group Holdings added Johnson to its board of directors. In conjunction with that move, the company also gave Johnson the IP and trademark rights to his WWE stage name: The Rock.
A new filing from TKO, however, shows that Johnson received more than just the rights to his alter-ego, he also received a bounty of IP rights and trademarks, from nicknames to catchphrases.
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That includes The Rock, of course, as well as his signature tagline: “If you smell what the rock is cooking.” But it also includes other nicknames, like “The Brahma Bull,” “The People’s Champion,” and “The Samoan Sensation” as well as the names of some of his signature finishing moves: The “Rock Bottom” and “People’s Elbow.”
And hilariously, the deal also gives Johnson IP rights to some of The Rock’s infamous in-ring insults.
According to a copy of the IP Assignment Agreement that TKO and Johnson signed (it was included in TKO’s latest 10-K), Johnson now owns the IP rights to taglines that include: “Jabroni,” “Candy Ass,” “Roody Poo,” and “Know your role and shut your mouth.”
Johnson joined TKO’s board in January, just days before Vince McMahon resigned from the company, somewhat overshadowing the news. TKO also gave Johnson a stock award valued at $30 million as part of a promotional services agreement, vesting over time. Johnson will also still be able to collect royalties in connection with sales of merchandise bearing the Rock trademarks (including, presumably, jabroni and candy ass).
Per a source, the WWE has been granted a license to use The Rock IP for certain categories and products for 10 years, and during that period Johnson can’t license the IP to businesses competitive with TKO.
In addition, Johnson was granted “other nicknames, caricatures, voice, signature, gestures, routines, costumes or parts of costumes, accessories, [and] crowns” associated with his WWE persona.
You can see a full list of IP rights and trademarks that the WWE and TKO gave to Johnson below, in an excerpt from the filing.
“’Rock IP’ means any and all Intellectual Property Rights throughout the world at any time owned by the TKO Group Parties, or any of their respective Affiliates, whether registered or unregistered, relating to (a) the following ring names and taglines: ‘The Rock’, ‘Rocky Maivia’, ‘Team Corporate’, ‘Rock Nation’, ‘The Nation’, ‘Roody Poo’, ‘Candy Ass’, ‘Jabroni’, ‘If you smell what The Rock is cooking’, ‘The Samoan Sensation’, ‘The Blue Chipper’, ‘The Brahma Bull’, ‘The People’s Champion’, ‘The Great One’, ‘Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth’, ‘Team Bring It’, ‘The Rock Just Bring It’, ‘The People’s Elbow’, ‘Rock Bottom’, ‘Finally, The Rock has come back to …’, ‘It doesn’t matter what…’, ‘Blue Hell”’ ‘The millions… (and millions)’, ‘Rockpocalypse’, ‘Project Rock’ and ‘The most electrifying man in sports and entertainment’.”
