MLB wants things uniform when it comes to trademarks
Source: USA Today (Original Article)
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Major League Baseball is cool with youth teams using its nicknames and logos on uniforms and caps. It wants the apparel to be bought through Majestic Athletic, MLB’s exclusive trademark licensee, as one Little League learned the hard way.
A retailer provided uniforms to the 700-player Tinley Park Bulldogs in suburban Chicago, but failed to pay the licensing fee for the trademarks, according to The Herald News of Joliet.
MLB’s response: Drop the big-league names or face a big-league lawsuit. The team did, hence their nickname: “Bulldogs.”
MLB says the issue is not with the kids donning uniforms with big-league team names, it’s with those profiting without authorization.
“We want nothing more than youth league players using the names of major league teams,” says MLB spokesman Matt Bourne.
“Our issue is simply with counterfeiters who are making MLB team product illegally for their own gain.”
Bourne says approximately 4,000 leagues in the USA wear official MLB uniforms.
Little League, the most well-known brand of youth baseball, says it has “never restricted” any team from using major league nicknames.
However, in a statement to USA TODAY, the Williamsport, Pa., organization says it “strongly” encourages teams “to use only those items authorized and licensed by Major League Baseball.”
MLB moved on a similar issue in March when it stopped a supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama from selling T-shirts online that read “Obama” in script similar to major league team names.
The Little League issues has become an I with MLB as the corporate villain.
From mo on The Press of Atlantic City website: “What the heck are they doing trying to collect on ANZ Frequent Flyer Card middle class families? Weak, MLB, totally …continue reading