Interesting Reason Why WWE Canceled Rights To The Hart Foundation Name

The Hart Foundation spent a good amount of time in WWE as babyface and heels, sometimes depending on where they were wrestling. But it looks like the popular stable name might have slipped through WWE’s fingers.
Currently, in MLW, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Teddy Hart, and Brian Pillman Jr are known as the New Hart Foundation which causes one to question whether or not WWE could do anything to stop Major League Wrestling from using this name. After all, the indie company recently ran a pretty insane War Games event because owner Court Bauer was able to secure that name somehow.
Reddit user Slowpush commented saying that it appears WWE’s trademark for the Hart Foundation name expired in 1999. We have checked this out and he is correct as you can see from the screenshot below. But things are even more interesting when you look at the timeline of events.
WWE registered for the trademark in September 1992 and canceled it on May 31st, 1999, just 8 days after Owen Hart’s tragic death. It wasn’t confirmed on the USPTO website that Hart’s death was the reason for WWE’s cancelation of the Hart Foundation name, but it is certainly an interesting coincidence.
In case you’re keeping score, the Hart Foundation 2.0 existed in ROH in 2003 with Teddy Hart followed by The Next Generation Hart Foundation later on. The last stable using the Hart name in WWE was the Hart Dynasty which included Natalya, Tyson Kidd, and Davey Boy Smith Jr from 2008-2010.