WWE quietly abandons its 'Vice City' trademark as Rockstar adds the name to GTA 6's legal line
WWE filed to trademark 'Vice City' on August 4, 2026 — for wrestling and entertainment services, not video games — then withdrew it: the USPTO now lists the application as abandoned after an express abandonment filed on September 2. No reason was given, and no public evidence links the move to Rockstar or Take-Two. In the same window, Rockstar's updated GTA 6 store listings added 'Vice City' to a
The trademark that evaporated
WWE has given up trying to own the words "Vice City". The company filed a trademark application for the name on August 4, 2026, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office now lists that filing as abandoned — after WWE submitted an express abandonment on September 2, which processed on September 21 (Ringside News; F4W/Wrestling Observer).
The scope of the filing is the reason this never became a legal fight. WWE was not claiming a video game. It sought protection in Class 041 for entertainment services: wrestling exhibitions and performances rendered live and through broadcast media, wrestling news and information, fan club services, online newsletters and blogs in sports entertainment (Beebom). Rockstar's territory was never contested on paper.
Why everyone noticed anyway
The timing did the talking. WWE filed days after Lola Vice — real name Valerie Loureda, a Miami native — finished her NXT run, and the company started airing Miami-heavy vignettes ahead of her main roster arrival. Vice then made her RAW in-ring debut on September 14 and immediately qualified for the Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match; a week later, on September 21, Adam Pearce introduced her as a full member of the RAW roster.
The wrestler's push never cooled. Only the branding idea did. The USPTO's own wording is blunt: "The owner of the trademark application withdrew (e.g. abandoned) the application and the application is no longer active."
Whether Take-Two Interactive had anything to do with the withdrawal is unknown. The company has spent two decades defending Vice City branding — it still holds a live registration for GRAND THEFT AUTO VICE CITY, filed in November 2002 and renewed for a second ten-year term in 2025 — and there is a corporate irony in the story: Take-Two also owns 2K, the publisher of the WWE 2K series. But no reason for the abandonment has been made public, and no source has tied it to Rockstar (Fightful).
Rockstar's own small edit
In the same window, Rockstar quietly rewrote part of the GTA 6 store pages. The trademark line on the Xbox Store listing now reads: "Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto VI, VI, Vice City, R*, and related logos are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc." Vice City had previously been missing from that list (Beebom).
The same sweep of updates moved the Vintage Vice City Pack pre-order bonus deadline to "Purchase prior to 19 November 2026 at 23:59:59", replacing earlier wording that pointed at November 20. It also added a digital product licensing notice and a "this game is fictional" disclaimer to the listing, and corrected a character name in the Ultimate Edition's Goodtime Gear description from "Macca the Alligator" to "Macca the Gator".
The same story from both ends
None of this is a courtroom drama. It is one company walking away from a nickname built around a Miami wrestler, and another tidying its paperwork to state that Vice City belongs to it — three days before the franchise returns to the city that gave it the name. GTA VI launches on November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and its marketing has already turned Vice City into a word that real cities, arenas and now wrestling promotions are negotiating over.
Read together, the two stories say the same thing from opposite directions: one trademark application quietly expired, and the other was quietly made explicit.
Update — 2026-09-23
The story crossed from wrestling desks into mainstream games coverage on September 23, when IGN ran it on both its English and French editions under the headline "'Vice City' Trademark Abandoned by WWE ahead of GTA 6 launch" (IGN; IGN France). The essentials are unchanged: the application is dead, the abandonment was processed on September 21, and no reason has been given. What the games-press version adds is framing rather than fact — IGN reads the filing as an attempt to theme something around Lola Vice, and treats any Rockstar involvement as speculation, noting that the studio "wouldn't have taken kindly" to a rival claiming a name it has used for two decades, while offering no evidence that it acted.
One detail in IGN's account differs from the earlier reporting: it dates the application to August 8, where Ringside News, eWrestlingNews and PW Mania all say August 4 — likely a filing-versus-publication distinction, and no outlet treats it as significant. IGN also anchors the story in the wider campaign, pointing to the near-$1 million "Welcome to Vice City" sign installed on the roof of Miami's Kaseya Center on September 22 — reported at an exact $975,000 — and to the backyard-wrestling activity, complete with a nod to John Cena's Attitude Adjustment, spotted in the Extended Look. Neither strand changes the outcome: the USPTO record still shows the filing abandoned, and no party has explained why.
