MLB Properties assures legal action in statement on Upper Deck's latest baseball card sets

01.29
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Posted on January 29, 2010 – 9:47 am | Author: chrisolds
Uncategorized | | Comments (8)

Major League Baseball Properties issued a statement to Beckett Media on Friday regarding a pair of 2009 baseball card sets from Upper Deck that use MLB logos as part of the cards, despite Topps‘ role as the exclusive licensee of MLB.

“We are surprised and disappointed that Upper Deck, a former partner of ours, would violate our contract by clearly using our intellectual property without our permission,” said the statement issued by Matt Bourne MLB’s Vice President of Business Public Relations.

“We will vigorously use all legal means to protect the intellectual property of Major League Baseball and its member Clubs.”

Upper Deck is licensed solely by the MLB Players Association, not MLB Properties. The products that MLB is addressing are 2009 Ultimate Collection and 2009 Signature Stars, which carry statements that the cards are not authorized by MLB but also  do not obscure team logos in the photographs.

Representatives for both Topps and Upper Deck have declined to comment on the matter.

We’ll have more on this story as it develops.

(Click on the link above to read our story from Thursday.)

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Graded Card Investor. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.

4 Comments

Paul

Sounds good to me. Did Upper Deck just want to get out this product, make some $$$, and then deal with the repercussions later? I guess they could do a “sorry, we won’t do it again” but it shouldn’t come without a penalty.

Posted January 29, 2010 at 10:47 am | Permalink
Offy

Good. Upper Deck knew full well what they were doing when they produced these cards. It seems to me that they didn’t think they’d survive too long after the Konami lawsuit with just two licences and decided to go out in a blaze of glory. I’m sure that a lawsuit from Topps isn’t far behind.

Posted January 29, 2010 at 10:52 am | Permalink
quambomb

If they are talking about Upper Deck Ultimate Collection then I am going to have to side with UD. That product is insanely amazing and collectors should be happy. Thanks UD for an awesome product and good luck in court

Posted January 29, 2010 at 10:59 am | Permalink
Phil Regetta

What exactly is a pingback and why do I keep seeing them in the comments? They don’t seem to be of any benefit.

Posted January 29, 2010 at 12:42 pm | Permalink

4 Trackbacks

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    [...] response of Major League Baseball was swift. In a statement released on Jaunary 28th, MLB announced that they “were surprised and disappointed that Upper Deck, a former partner of ours, would [...]

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