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BY TIM CRONIN SouthtownStar
The baseball uniforms for the Tinley Park Bulldogs look a little different this year.
Gone are the names of Major League teams that accompanied "Bulldogs" on the front of the kids' jerseys.
No White Sox. No Cubs. No Phillies, Yankees or Reds. Why? Major League Baseball hurled a fastball at the heads of those who make the uniforms for the little ballplayers: Drop the big league names or face a lawsuit.
For the Bulldogs, that means no more teams named after any pro franchise. Because the Bulldogs' uniforms didn't feature official Major League team logos, neither the league nor its uniform supplier, SportStation of Tinley Park, had paid a licensing fee for the uniforms.
Late last year, SportStation received a letter from Major League Baseball, noting that not only the logos but the team names were trademarked. The letter ordered the company to stop producing the uniforms.
"Does a league have a right to name a local team? Baseball is saying no. That's flying in the face of 100 years of tradition," said SportStation owner Dave Glenn, in business 35 years. "What it boils down to is the interpretation of the trademark."
Sports are big business, and with billions of dollars at stake, organizations such as Major League Baseball go to great lengths to protect their trademarks. Glenn said he'd never used baseball logos on team jerseys he sold, and he ended three months of legal wrangling with Major League Baseball by signing an agreement stating he'd continue not to do so.
The Bulldogs organization does not have the names of pro teams on jerseys but does have the names of Major League cities on its uniforms. It buys an official cap to match. So a kid on the Royals wears a Kansas City Royals cap and his jersey says "Kansas City" next to "Bulldogs." It turned out that buying 700 officially licensed Major League Baseball caps was less expensive than custom-producing a similar number of Bulldogs-logoed caps.
This story should be called "How to make your sport popular among kids"
The baseball uniforms for the Tinley Park Bulldogs look a little different this year.
Gone are the names of Major League teams that accompanied "Bulldogs" on the front of the kids' jerseys.
No White Sox. No Cubs. No Phillies, Yankees or Reds. Why? Major League Baseball hurled a fastball at the heads of those who make the uniforms for the little ballplayers: Drop the big league names or face a lawsuit.
For the Bulldogs, that means no more teams named after any pro franchise. Because the Bulldogs' uniforms didn't feature official Major League team logos, neither the league nor its uniform supplier, SportStation of Tinley Park, had paid a licensing fee for the uniforms.
Late last year, SportStation received a letter from Major League Baseball, noting that not only the logos but the team names were trademarked. The letter ordered the company to stop producing the uniforms.
"Does a league have a right to name a local team? Baseball is saying no. That's flying in the face of 100 years of tradition," said SportStation owner Dave Glenn, in business 35 years. "What it boils down to is the interpretation of the trademark."
Sports are big business, and with billions of dollars at stake, organizations such as Major League Baseball go to great lengths to protect their trademarks. Glenn said he'd never used baseball logos on team jerseys he sold, and he ended three months of legal wrangling with Major League Baseball by signing an agreement stating he'd continue not to do so.
The Bulldogs organization does not have the names of pro teams on jerseys but does have the names of Major League cities on its uniforms. It buys an official cap to match. So a kid on the Royals wears a Kansas City Royals cap and his jersey says "Kansas City" next to "Bulldogs." It turned out that buying 700 officially licensed Major League Baseball caps was less expensive than custom-producing a similar number of Bulldogs-logoed caps.
This story should be called "How to make your sport popular among kids"
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