[ohioarmy05]

I feel like this may have been discussed here before, but a quick search did not find anything. I did find the below article written last year (Shane breaking a box of 2002 Vintage). Anyways with this years Heritage design beings based off of the 1971 Topps Design it made me double take a card that I found last night while flipping through my Reds PC (2002 Upper Deck Vintage Larkin). So at 3 AM I found myself on Google trying to find out how Upper Deck was able to use the 71 design in their 2002 product. Besides the article by Shane which states that does not know either, I found an article from 2009 at the beginning of the end for Upper Deck being able to make "official" baseball cards. It is funny because the article does mention Topps accusing Upper Deck of plans to use the 71 design in their 2009 product. So the question in my mind is how were they able to get away with it in 2002? Has someone else been able to find the answer or have any insight?

2019 Article by Shane Salmonson
https://www.beckett.com/news/cheap-wax-w...-baseball/

2009 Article by Chris Olds
https://www.beckett.com/news/topps-sues-...esign-use/

[zeprock]

I don't have the answer for you but Upper Deck did the same thing with their Vintage sets in 2001 (1963 Topps design) and 2003 (1965 Topps design).

[ricelynnevans75]

This is an interesting topic. I do recall wondering back in the day how UD was able to mimic prior Topps designs but I never thought about it more than a few seconds.

Topps and UD did come to an agreed upon settlement pertaining to the 2009 cards.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-topps...PQ20091105

However, no mention anywhere of the 2002 set. I was able to find at least two major things that happened in relation to Topps and baseball cards in general between 2002 and 2009 however. In 2006 was when MLB gave UD and Topps the exclusive rights to an MLB license. Before that it was a free for all and tons of products were on the market. Maybe at the time, in 2002, a single set out there like UD Vintage just wasn't a big threat or something and not worth the time or money to pursue. With only two manufacturers, with a license anyway in 2009, maybe the battle for supremacy was more cut-throat. Also, Topps had different ownership in 2002 than they did in 2009 as Topps was sold in 2007 so it's also possible that they just had very different views on things like this.

Another scenario is that maybe the financial issues that UD was facing was becoming more well known at the time in 2009, at least in the corporate world. Topps could have seen this as a maneuver to inflict heavy damage on their sole competitor. 2009 is when Topps was awarded the exclusive for MLB cards which officially began in 2010.

Anyway, I'm rambling with thoughts, ideas, and possibilities. Just thought I'd share some.

[rjcj2017]

Hell, Leaf buys other companies' actual cards and repacks them in their own boxes ... pirating a design seems minor compared to that.