MLB applies for trademarks for Boston, Houston, Seattle. Red Sox ask for Boston application to be rescinded

[LadyStanley]

Red Sox ask MLB to withdraw trademark application for the word 'Boston'

MLB has reportedly filed similar applications for the Astros and Mariners.

sports.yahoo.com

For baseball merch.

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[CharasLazyWrister]

I keep hearing about this, reading about this, and still don’t understand it. What “right” would MLB be protecting or owning here?

 

[BattleBorn]

I keep hearing about this, reading about this, and still don’t understand it. What “right” would MLB be protecting or owning here?

The right to exclusive commercial use of the name Boston with regard to baseball merchandise (or other baseball related stuff, we’d have to see the app.)

Easiest example I can come up with would be the knockoff t-shirts and jerseys sold on the streets around the stadium.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

The right to exclusive commercial use of the name Boston with regard to baseball merchandise (or other baseball related stuff, we’d have to see the app.)

Easiest example I can come up with would be the knockoff t-shirts and jerseys sold on the streets around the stadium.

Gotcha.

Definitely seems like a massive overreach.

 

[Fenway]

It didn't play well here

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Deserves as much backlash as physically possible.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Just reinforces the fact that John Henry is all about money

 

[oknazevad]

It's almost like people didn't read that the team asked MLB to rescind the application. And that such an application wouldn't apply to anything else outside of baseball merchandise anyway.

Anyway, considering that teams' road jerseys typically and traditionally use just the city name in a particular typeface as a word mark, which is well below the threshold of originality to be copyrightable (can't copyright plain text as a logo), it does kinda make sense for them to turn to trademark protections to prevent bootlegs and knock-offs.

Plus, frankly, the Herald making a big stink makes me care less. That rag is only slightly better than the fabricators at The New York Post.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

The teams should have to live with the fact that someone else can make a tee shirt saying 'Boston' or 'Seattle' and sell it. MLB franchises don't own the concept of the sport of baseball being played in their city.

 

[oknazevad]

But sitting back and not doing anything to stop any shirt that looks exactly like the shirts modeled after their road uniforms would lead to a loss of trademark rights to their own uniforms. A trademark owner cannot be passive. They must take efforts to assert their trademarks or they lose them. That's how the law works.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

But sitting back and not doing anything to stop any shirt that looks exactly like the shirts modeled after their road uniforms would lead to a loss of trademark rights to their own uniforms. A trademark owner cannot be passive. They must take efforts to assert their trademarks or they lose them. That's how the law works.

There's a huge difference between trademarking BOSTON in the Red Sox font and trademarking the word BOSTON.

It's almost like people didn't read that the team asked MLB to rescind the application. And that such an application wouldn't apply to anything else outside of baseball merchandise anyway.

Anyway, considering that teams' road jerseys typically and traditionally use just the city name in a particular typeface as a word mark, which is well below the threshold of originality to be copyrightable (can't copyright plain text as a logo), it does kinda make sense for them to turn to trademark protections to prevent bootlegs and knock-offs.

Plus, frankly, the Herald making a big stink makes me care less. That rag is only slightly better than the fabricators at The New York Post.

It's almost like you're ignoring the fact that the only reason it was rescinded is because of the immediate and massive backlash he got in Boston

 

[LadyStanley]

There's a huge difference between trademarking BOSTON in the Red Sox font and trademarking the word BOSTON.

And team colors. Both may be required.


I may do a shirt in fuschia, because I love the color, with the word BOSTON as I'm from there (actually, not, but for example), and love that font because it's iconic.

Pittsburgh, for instance, has the same colors for the MLB, NHL and NFL teams in town.

 

[oknazevad]

There's a huge difference between trademarking BOSTON in the Red Sox font and trademarking the word BOSTON.

Having not seen the actual application, I'm not convinced it wasn't the just the word in the font and not the name "Boston" as a whole. All we have to go by is a story in a tabloid rag. Any trademark application is limited to a particular industry anyway.

It's almost like you're ignoring the fact that the only reason it was rescinded is because of the immediate and massive backlash he got in Boston

Well, that's the sort of backlash that happens when a tabloid stirs the pot.