The World Wrestling Federation has vowed to appeal a ruling on Wednesday by the English Court of Appeal which upheld a previous court order that the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) was entitled to the exclusive use of the initials WWF anywhere outside the US.

In October 2001, the High Court ruled that the Federation breached a 1994 agreement with the World Wildlife Fund by the use of its current "scratch" logo and the URL wwf.com. The charity successfully argued that the Federation’s association with violence and sleaze was damaging by “insalubrious connotation” the Fund’s ability to raise money for nature conservation.

According to Newsbytes, the Federation was ordered to stop using the wwf.com domain name. However, a stay on the punishment will remain in force pending the Federation’s petition to the House of Lords for permission to review the Court of Appeal’s decision.

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