Megan Rapinoe is threatening to lay the smackdown on The Rock in court.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is re-launching the XFL, and earlier this week the football league released a new “together” campaign, promising that it “reveals a bold brand identity, signaling a new vision for the forward-thinking league.”
However, Rapinoe, a star on the USWNT, says this inclusivity campaign violates her exclusive intellectual property rights of a company co-founded by her wife, WNBA player Sue Bird. The logo that Johnson posted looked almost identical to that of TogethXR.
“Welp. This is awkward,” Rapinoe tweeted, with a screengrab of the XFL’s branding announcement from LinkedIn. “Only thing @TheRock and @XFL2023 are gonna be cookin up is a response to the Cease and Desist and an ENTIRE new brand ID. @togethxr got this on lock boys.”
TogethXR is a lifestyle and culture brand cofounded by Bird, Rapinoe’s USWNT teammate Alex Morgan and Olympic gold medalists Simone Manuel and Chloe Kim.
Rapinoe’s tweet effectively serves as an unofficial “cease and desist” shot before the athletes involved with the TogethXR brand formalizes the letter, which would be a precursor to potential intellectual property litigation.