According to a report from Heel By Nature, WWE’s trademark on Cody Rhodes expired on April 13th after a six-month grace period. On that same day, Cody Rhodes filed an application to trademark his full name.
WWE had originally filed the trademark on October 13th, 2009 and it expired on October 13th of last year. In 2018, Cody Rhodes said the following,
“By no means is WWE holding that name hostage, that is not a real thing. If I was to walk out tomorrow as Cody Rhodes and announced as Cody Rhodes, nobody’s gonna sue us, nobody’s coming after us.” He has also said that he planned to get it back and said in 2017, “I don’t mind that WWE took away my last name. Deep down, in my bones, I definitely want it back, and I have plans to get it back, but there is something to being Cody. The longer I don’t have a last name, the more I’m okay with it. That’s not to say WWE is holding it ransom. It’s literally an intellectual property law that easily can be remedied, but there is something about being Cody that I don’t mind.”
