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Major League Baseball v. Upper Deck

Major League Baseball (MLB) Properties, the licensing arm of the league's 30 clubs,  filed a federal lawsuit on February 1st against Upper Deck, a baseball card manufacturer, alleging trademark infringement for their recent use of MLB team logos on baseball cards without permission.

In August 2009, MLB signed an exclusive multi-year agreement with Topps Co. (Upper Deck's main rival in the baseball card market).  This deal ousted Upper Deck from its 22-year long relationship with MLB, and gave Topps the exclusive rights to use MLB team logos and uniforms on baseball cards.  Recognizing the loss of future revenues they would incur without an exclusive deal, Upper Deck executives reportedly re-signed a licensing agreement with the MLB Players Association, so that Upper Deck would still have rights to sell baseball cards with players' images and likenesses in its Upper Deck 2010 baseball card sets.

MLB was not happy with this move, and even sent letters to baseball card distributors asking them not to sell upper Deck's 2010 baseball card sets.  The MLB then filed a federal complaint, stating that "Upper Deck's current conduct is reflective of a pattern of utter disrespect for the contractual and intellectual property rights of those from whom it licenses valuable trademarks."  In its complaint MLB asks the court to stop the sale of Upper Deck's unauthorized baseball cards, and seeks triple and punitive damages.  The complaint also claims that Upper Deck owes MLB $2.4 million.

Despite a decline in card sales over the past two decades, the licensing of sports team logos, players' images and likenesses is still big business.  According to estimates from Sports Collector's Digest, card sales amounted to $1.2 billion in 1991, but by the end of the millennium total sales had declined to $400 million, and sales dropped all the way to $200 million by 2008. (Forbes, August 31, 2009).

Here is a copy of the complaint in the case: