BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: THT: This Brings Me No Joy (Yankees send C & D to blog)

Baseball Primer Newsblog
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand

Friday, December 04, 2009

THT: This Brings Me No Joy (Yankees send C & D to blog)

As many of you know, my baseball loyalties lie with the Yankees. The Evil Empire often catches a lot of flack for acting like, well, an Evil Empire. I’ve defended them time and time again on the internet, to my friends, and to my eternally pessimistic dad. But when the Yankees send this letter to some of their biggest fans, I can’t really defend them:

Accordingly, demand is hereby made that you immediately cease and desist from using
the YANKEE UNIVERSE name and the Logo, any other Yankees Mark and any other MLB
Mark in and as the name of your Website, to promote the Website, to seek advertising any other
commercial opportunities, in and as the Domain Name, and in any other manner that would
cause consumer confusion, dilution of the MLB Marks, or imply any sponsorship or
endorsement of your Website or its contents by any MLB Entity.

The guys at TYU run a quality blog, and do nothing to take away from the Yankee brand. I don’t see why the use of the Yankee logo and the team name in their website is reason to make them change their website around.

Moshe Mandel Posted: December 04, 2009 at 12:00 AM | 18 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: general

Reader Comments and Retorts

Go to end of page

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

1. Moshe Mandel Posted: December 04, 2009 at 12:30 AM (#3402790)

Crap, that came out wrong. The entire quote is from Dan Novick at THT, the BQ is the C & D text.

2. Best Regards, Larry M. Posted: December 04, 2009 at 12:33 AM (#3402796)

If you rename it to "Replacement Level Yankees Weblog" I'm taking you down. Hard.

3. New York Necks Posted: December 04, 2009 at 01:22 AM (#3402853)

First they came for Moshe, but I said nothing, for I was not a Yankees fan...

4. Gamingboy Posted: December 04, 2009 at 02:07 AM (#3402897)

I told you this day would come!
No, wait... I didn't. Well, not specifically.

5. Hang down your head, Tom Foley Posted: December 04, 2009 at 03:43 AM (#3402988)

One of the comments says they used a Yankee logo in the browser address bar. That logo is now a dollar sign.

6. Gamingboy Posted: December 04, 2009 at 03:45 AM (#3402991)

One of the comments says they used a Yankee logo in the browser address bar. That logo is now a dollar sign.

So they just changed it to the Yankees alternate logo?

7. Moshe Mandel Posted: December 04, 2009 at 04:19 AM (#3403010)

One of the comments says they used a Yankee logo in the browser address bar. That logo is now a dollar sign.

Yeah, I changed it to the dollar sign. It just seemed to fit best of all the options.

8. GIANTlhbASS Posted: December 04, 2009 at 05:12 AM (#3403036)

cease and desist from using ... any other Yankees Mark ...

So this would preclude mention of Mark Koenig, Mark Teixeira and Mark Hutton?

I've done copyright law and don't recall seeing "Mark" capitalized.

9. Greg Goosen at 30 Posted: December 04, 2009 at 08:16 AM (#3403113)

Send your house, cash out your IRA and send the money to the Yankees to compensate them for the expense of contacting you.

10. Shock Posted: December 04, 2009 at 09:28 AM (#3403122)

So they just changed it to the Yankees alternate logo?

I laughed.

Are you sure the dollar sign isn't protected too?

11. RB in NYC (Now with New iPhone!) Posted: December 04, 2009 at 01:15 PM (#3403148)

12. depletion Posted: December 04, 2009 at 02:49 PM (#3403186)

Skankee Universe?

13. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: December 04, 2009 at 02:55 PM (#3403191)

Whenever these stories surface, isn't the general consensus among our legal types that the Yankees are obliged to send letters like this, because not doing so could end up biting them in the ass when it came to people actually looking to exploit "Yankee Marks" for their own gain?

I believe so, yes. If you don't defend your trademark, you can actually lose it. I believe "Zipper" is the usually cited example of this.

14. Dolf Lucky Posted: December 04, 2009 at 03:16 PM (#3403209)

I actually meant to go to baseball prospectus, but ended up here instead. Weird.

15. Designated Sitter (GGC) Posted: December 04, 2009 at 03:41 PM (#3403230)

And if you got there, Dolf, I'd nominate you for a Propecty.

16. Russ Posted: December 04, 2009 at 03:42 PM (#3403231)

If you don't defend your trademark, you can actually lose it. I believe "Zipper" is the usually cited example of this.

Couldn't they cut a licensing deal with the weblog? They can choose who they allow and don't allow to use the trademark, right? Why wouldn't they contractually bring the website under the team's marketing umbrella as an entity that is 100% Yankee owned, but 0% financially supported? Seems like a big mistake if the blog actually gets any reasonable amount of traffic.

17. Mayor Blomberg Posted: December 04, 2009 at 03:48 PM (#3403243)

they might be concerned about yankeeuniverse v yankeesuniverse; say what you want about the stupidity of the latter name, it's harder to argue against a charity than the NYY itself.

18. Mayor Blomberg Posted: December 04, 2009 at 03:48 PM (#3403244)

damned doubles

You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.

<< Back to main

Friday, December 04, 2009

THT: This Brings Me No Joy (Yankees send C & D to blog)

Reader Comments and Retorts

Support BBTF

Bookmarks

Hot Topics