Winning the hearts and minds of young fans once again.

totally ridiculous

A lame-duck commissioner, a steriods/HGH scandal, tainted records, poor television ratings, rules prohibiting kids from getting autographs if they aren't ticketed for the lower level and now ripping the logos and names of Little League teams... As "W" said post-Katrina: "You're doin a heck of job down there Brownie."

Sorry to be the fart in church here, but I agree with MLB on this one. I don't often agree with Bud and his lackeys, but these logos are indeed protected trademarks and to let unlicensed individual companies produce these jerseys is not in the best interest of any party involved.

While we're not talking big bucks here, the firm producing the uniforms is making some money...so to let this go unchallenged, goes against all copyright laws.

I know, I know...it sucks, but the copyright laws exist for exactly this purpose.

I wouldn't have an issue if it was just the logos, but they are claiming trademark rights over the names of the teams.

What's next? Are they going to sue the local high school drama club for doing a production of 'Damn Yankees'?

Agreed. MLB did away with the logos about 15 years ago, when i was still in little league. Now doing away with the names is cazy. Is the MLB going to try and sue every single collegiate team named the "tigers" or "pirates"? You cant trademark a damned name.

Trust me, if anyone can it will be MLB...... they will spend as much as it takes to research and make sure no one is using names such as tigers or pirates.....

but again it is totally ridiculous either way you look at it

Stephen Colbert had a pretty good commentary about that - click here to watch (the video is about halfway down.)

Apparently MLB did the same thing to the Cap Cod league last year - there are 6 of the 10 teams that have "MLB Names" and MLB says they basically have two choices - either change the names or buy their uniforms and souvenir merchandise from Majestic. If they refuse they'll lose the $100,000 grant that MLB provides to the Cape Cod league. The annual operating budget for the league is $1.5 - 2M. I'd tell them to piss off and keep their pittance.

LINK

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish.




Here's the deal MLB should make. The leagues apply for a waiver on the names and as long as the uniforms and logo's are not the same they will get the waiver for free.