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Battles over trademarks and patents are nothing new and have been pivotal in companies getting a competitive edge over the years. New trademark filings indicate that four Major League Baseball teams have something else in mind when it comes to this type of intellectual property.
What Happened: Opening Day for Major League Baseball is around the corner, with March 30, 2023, circled on the calendars of baseball fans worldwide. The 2023 season comes a year after Major League Baseball players and the MLB reached a deal after a strike that pushed back the season start to April 7, 2022.
Three Major League Baseball teams that will take part in the 2023 season have recently filed to trademark the names of their cities.
First reported by trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis on Twitter, the trademarks have the teams attempting to trademark their city name for clothing, headwear, footwear, uniforms, jerseys, infant wear, cloth bibs, socks, entertainment services, concerts and more.
The filings indicate that the clothing trademarks are related to “professional baseball or softball.”
The MLB teams that filed the trademarks were the Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners. The trademarks were filed on March 17.
The trademarks could set a new precedent for sports teams and have other baseball teams like the publicly traded Atlanta Braves, owned by Liberty Braves Group (NASDAQ:BATRA) considering trademarks for their city.
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What’s Next: The big question will be whether the trademarks will be accepted and the teams will enjoy exclusive use of terms like “Boston,” “Houston” and “Seattle.”
As Sportico notes, the trademarks aren’t encompassing of all items and pertain to baseball related items.
One expert told Sportico that the trademarks could face legal hurdles, as the city name isn’t essential to the baseball team.
The trademark filing from the Red Sox indicates using Boston for “providing news, information, online newsletters, podcasts, webcasts and all in the field of sports,” which would seem to block other media outlets that currently cover the city of Boston.
If the sports teams are able to get their trademarks or a portion of them approved by the USPTO, it could be another source of revenue with the ability to license the term to other businesses.
Sportico notes that Liverpool FC, a soccer team in the English Premier League, attempted to trademark “Liverpool,” for products and services, but was denied.
Major League Baseball also became the subject of a major trademark case in the sports world, with the Cleveland Indians announcing their name change to the Cleveland Guardians, which was already the name of a roller derby team in the city. The MLB team was sued and an out-of-court settlement was reached between the parties to allow both teams to operate.
Another recent case saw Ohio State University successfully register a trademark for the word “THE.” The college has the rights to use “THE” on several products related to its athletics. Ohio State began using “the” in 1986 in part to distinguish itself from other schools that could also use OSU like Oregon State University and Oklahoma State University.
The trademark filings by the three MLB teams will be closely monitored in the sports world and could lead to a surge in filings by sports teams if approved.
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