Today, Moshe received a Cease and Desist order via email from Major League Baseball Advanced Media. This order, with Moshe’s personal information blacked out, can be downloaded here.
MLBAM asked us to do the following:
Accordingly, demand is hereby made that you immediately cease and desist from using the YANKEE UNIVERSE name and the Logo, any other Yankees Mark and any other MLB mark in and as the name of your Website, to promote the Website, to seek advertising any other commercial opportunities, in and as the Domain Name, and in any other manner that would cause consumer confusion, dilution of the MLB Marks, or imply any sponsorship or endorsement of your Website or its contents by any MLB Entity.
I suggest reading the entire document. It’s quite interesting.
We have removed the Yankee logo from our website, and added a disclaimer to the top of the site explaining that we are in no way affiliated with the New York Yankees. We have also consulted several lawyers, and have some excellent legal advice behind us. We will be sending a letter of reply to MLBAM.
But I want to say something. Moshe, Steve, Chris, Rebecca, and I are baseball fans. We have never made a dime from this site. Moshe had placed a few ads in our sidebar to help cover the hosting and domain costs for the site, but we have never made any profit off them.
We started this site a year ago because we love to write and argue about baseball. We’ve amassed a modest following – roughly 1,500 unique visitors per day – but by no means are we any more than a normal baseball fan blog. MLBAM knows this. There is nothing on our site that even appears to be detrimental to the Yankee brand.
The truth is, we’re good for Major League Baseball and the Yankees. Bloggers like us help the league. We create interest, discussion, and new niches for the game. I know that reading blogs has made me a much bigger fan of the game, and I am sure that many of you had the same experience. Baseball has experienced an unprecedented period of growth that has coincided with the new predominance of baseball blogging on the internet.
What would MLBAM be without the hundreds of baseball blogs out there? And how many of those blogs use the names and images of teams? MLBAM is making a serious mistake by alienating its most important followers. Bloggers are called the “New Media” for a reason. The future of online media entails more people, not less, getting online and voicing their opinion. And that’s all we’re doing.
We believe that we are perfectly within our rights to use the term “Yankees” on our blog, and to use photos taken at Yankee Stadium with personal cameras. We do not think that any reasonable person can mistake our site for an official representation of the New York Yankees or MLBAM, but just to be sure we are adding a disclaimer to the top of this site. With little effort, I can count more than a dozen blogs by Yankee fans that use the word “Yankees” in its title. Do they all have to change?
I have written for four different blogs since 2006. It took me a long time to build up Fire Joe Torre and Pinstripes Potentials, and more than two years for Pending Pinstripes to reach its height. Along with Moshe, Chris, Steve, and others, I have worked very hard to build The Yankee Universe into a site that we can take pride in. We have a vibrant group of dedicated readers who share their thoughts in extensive and informative comments every day. We like what we have created.
Yankees Universe is a charity set up by The New York Yankees. We do not believe that our name is harming the charity in any way, and we would be happy to direct our modest amount of traffic toward www.yankeesuniverse.com with free advertising space on our sidebars and header. We would also be willing to change the disclaimer that we have added to the top of the site to meet any conditions required by the MLBAM.
Moshe, Chris, Steve, and I will do everything that we can to work with MLBAM to resolve this issue. We do not mean to pick a fight. We simply want all of our hard work over the past year to remain where it is.
We thank everyone reading for sticking with us over the past year. We’ve got a lot of fun things planned for the future, and hope to keep it all here, on The Yankee Universe.
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36 Responses to TYU Response to MLBAM's Cease and Desist
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TIQ IQ
With little effort, I can count more than a dozen blogs by Yankee fans that use the word “Yankees” in its title. Do they all have to change?
You should clarify this point a bit, E.J. Using the word “Yankee” in the title as Replacement Level Yankees Weblog does is different, in the eyes of the law, as using it in your domain name. Plus, you fail to identify the legal argument that explains how The Yankee Universe is not infringing the Yankees’ registered trademark in Yankees Universe. You say you started this site a year ago. I say the Yanks registered their trademark before that.
MLBAM and the Yanks are simply enforcing their intellectual property rights. You don’t have to like it, but it’s the law. Your response is just a fan’s impassioned defense of an infringing act.
There is, after all, a reason why Bronx Banter, River Ave. Blues, Was Watching and RLYW among others don’t use the team’s name in the URL and severely limit their uses of Yankee trademarks and copyrights on their sites.
Thank you. We have legal advice, and will be sending a letter of reply to MLBAM with our argument. This post is not intended for that purpose.
This was not intended to be a legal discussion. However, I think fair use and a lack of consumer confusion might be a start.
I don’t believe you can sustain a fair use argument. You can use a trademark nominatively to refer to a trademarked item, but you can’t use more than necessary. You’re using the entire mark here to identify a product that is probably competing with the Yankees in the eyes of the law. But as you and E.J. said, this isn’t supposed to be a legal discussion. It’s a P.R. post. I get it. Get what you want out of it. Good luck. I enjoy the writers here. Just let us know the new URL :)
Lol. We will keep all of the readers in the loop.
Hope everything is OK. Love to read this site everyday.
“In the Know” – I think you miss the point of EJ’s post. You write that he hasn’t given any sort of legal defense for this blog’s actions. And that his is the response of “a fan’s impassioned defense.” Exactly, dude. EJ never purported to be writing a brief for court. He admits, in several places, that his arguments aren’t legal. He is criticizing MLB and the team for their actions against loyal fans who mean no harm.
You also miss the point of his (decidedly non-legal) argument about other blogs that have the word “Yankee” in the domain name. His point is that one can easily find numerous examples of sports blogs who use the word “Yankee” in or as their blog/domain name. So why target this particular site? Why the partial, selective enforcement? His argument does actually carry some legal weight, as partial enforcement can be evidence of abandonment.
You claim: “Using the word ‘Yankee’ in the title as Replacement Level Yankees Weblog does is different, in the eyes of the law, as using it in your domain name.” Support for that assertion? Because, if there is a blog that uses “Replacement Level Yankees Weblog” as its domain name and it writes about sports, I’m going to go ahead and say that there’s little to no legal distinction between that use and this use.
I’d also say that this blog has valid defenses. They may not work, but your analysis of “the law is the law, get over it” is a bit glib. The SDNY (undoubtedly the district in which any action on this issue would be brought) has interpreted liability for infringement of a registered mark to mean a situation where “one uses, without consent, any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation of a New York registered mark in connection with the sale or advertising of goods or services, provided such use is likely to cause confusion or mistake or to deceive as to the source of origin of the goods or services.”
If you read that carefully, liability is hinged on the use of a mark “in connection with the sale or advertising of goods or services.” When has this blog ever used any Yankee mark to sell or advertise goods or services? That this blog uses the marks non-commercially may be a weighty consideration in determining liability (or lack thereof). I’m not saying it’s rock solid. I’m just saying this isn’t so clear cut.
Criticizing non-attorneys (EJ and the like) for not proffering sound legal defenses in their blog posts is bad enough. But when you combine that with offering faulty and possibly invalid legal opinions of your own…well…it just seriously calls into the question the accuracy of your pseudonym.
Head. Explodes.
Jeff, If you really want to get into a legal discussion here:
You also miss the point of his (decidedly non-legal) argument about other blogs that have the word “Yankee” in the domain name. His point is that one can easily find numerous examples of sports blogs who use the word “Yankee” in or as their blog/domain name. So why target this particular site? Why the partial, selective enforcement? His argument does actually carry some legal weight, as partial enforcement can be evidence of abandonment.
Why target this particular site? Because it is a direct use of a full registered mark. Why now? Probably because someone finally became aware of it. No offense to these guys, but it’s not a highly trafficked website. Maybe someone at the Yankees just discovered it this week and acted as soon as they could. That’s not evidence of abandonment. I’m sure the team would respond just as swiftly if someone compiled and sent them a list of blogs with Yankees in the URL.
Because, if there is a blog that uses “Replacement Level Yankees Weblog” as its domain name and it writes about sports, I’m going to go ahead and say that there’s little to no legal distinction between that use and this use.
The domain name for Replacement Level Yankees Weblog is replacementlevel.com. They use Yankees in the title as an description of what they are, a Yankees Weblog. That’s an acceptable use under trademark law. It’s not nearly as identical as you make it out to be.
As to the standard of “in connection with the sale or advertising of goods or services,” the court will look at consumer confusing as well as the defendant’s intents and actions. Right now, these guys are running a website about the Yankees by using one of the Yanks’ marks. They’re also selling advertisement on the site and intend to attract traffic to the site by making use of a mark belonging to the Yanks in the domain name. It’s too late for me to start tracking down precedent in the Southern District, but it’s just not a strong case.
Finally, there’s nothing faulty or invalid about my analysis. It might not be perfect, but just because it doesn’t gibe with your conclusion, that doesn’t make either of us wrong.
This is true, but the conclusion that you draw is not. This blog has been the number 1 result on google for Yankee Universe pretty much since it started. I find it extremely difficult to believe that nobody associated with the Yankees googled the name once between the time they opened the fan club and today. More likely, they noticed that I put up advertising for the first time this week to cover my costs and pounced. That is their prerogative, but let’s not make them out to be the victim of some sort of nefarious attempt to profit off their name.
Hi guys. Sorry to hear this is happening to you. You should know that there’s a very long history of science fiction fans fighting back against zealot corporate lawyers trying to do things like shut down Star Trek fan sites in situations very similar to yours.
Check out http://www.chillingeffects.org/index.cgi to find a central clearing house for lots of those folks. There are folks at the Electronic Frontier Foundation keenly interested in this, among other legal defense groups, funds, and organizations.
No reasonable person would be confused between your blog and the Yankees’ “Yankees Universe” charity, but to prove it in court is all too often more expensive than a fan site can bear. I saw a panel of lawyer speak on this exact topic last summer and one of them said “Unfortunately, the way trademark and fair use laws stand right now, they only apply to the very rich.” But they can be fought.
Meanwhile, I can’t help but point out the irony that your Google Ads are now coming up with ads for lawyers. I’d be laughing if the situation weren’t so crummy.
I could be mistaken but doesn’t your blog predate the establishment of the charity? From a legal standpoint it wouldn’t necessarily matter, but it does make them look worse for pressing the issue.
I thought so, but apparently not. They charity existed but had little to no exposure prior to our use. So the timline is registration, slight use, our use, fan club.
I was pretty sure their vaunted launch had occurred after you guys got started, but I figured they might have registered and such in advance. Oh well.
Sorry to hear the news guys, I come to this site on a daily basis because it always has up to date articles and discussions. Being a passionate yankee fan means I want to know as much about the team as possible and honestly yankees.com isn’t sufficient for that, ive been addicted to this blog since i found it about 4 months ago. I hope everything works out for you guys and if you have to change the URL i think its a bit extreme but I will follow!!
Long live TYU!!!
Great going! This blog is the best and has supplanted, for me at least, most mainstream news sources covering the “New York Yankees”. You are a legitimate source of news and analysis and thus are accorded the same protections of the 1st ammendment that the “NY Times” and “Lohud Yankees Blog(with logo)” receive. These rights are intended for the protection of all individuals. Only since the 1930′s have the great corporations arisen and tried to usurp these god given rights inferring that certain freedoms must pertain first to corporations and possibly then to individual citizens, but only if the corporations needs for the “greater good” are not impeded. We are all behind you. Your fight is our fight. Your loss will be our loss. And Your Victory will be exactly what the framers intended. Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was also an individual blog written and distributed by an individual citizens. The reigning corporation of the day, the “Royal Monarchy of England” became disturbed because their revenue stream might be disrupted to some degree. Keep up the excellent work!
WOW! I have only come to know about your blog a little over 2 weeks ago and find it and many of the comments interesting and enlightening. Although I can understand “THE YANKEES” (lol) concern, we are all just a bunch of fans. If you ask my wife “crazy” fans. C’mon Yanks, pick on someone your own size. Lets hope you have eased their mind. Keep on movin’.
[...] 2. Baseball Bloggers Alliance buddy Greg Fertel of Pending Pinstripes informed us yesterday that MLB has hit the Yankee Universe with a cease and disist order. You can read more about it here. [...]
It ought to be noted the home page for this site carries a page rank 5 from Google, which is very very good. As blogs (in particular sports blogs) go, this is exceptional. Especially considering this site has not been around very long compared to other sites.
I love this site, EJ, and would rate it as one of the top 3 Yankee blogs I read (and all of you could be #1). However, I also understand, from the Yankee and legal POV, the need to protect copyright/trademark.
I hope you can resolve this amicably.
Thanks to EJ for posting this!
Well at least this name struggle got you guys mentioned on Rob Neyers daily blog.
This.
Ultimately, this could be the best thing that happened to your blog, traffic-wise. The longer you drag this out and the bigger deal it becomes, the better off you are.
Something tells me you may have already thought of this.
This has to have come from the Yankees rather than MLB, because there are tons of sites with team names out there. I guess maybe Mets fans are right after all: The Yankees suck!
Some history courtesy of Steve from WW.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2002/09/01/website_crackdown_ap/
MLB does have the right to limit the use of trademarks belonging to the “New York Yankees”. Unfortuately for MLB they do not own the trademark to the word “Yankee”. You guys know what your doing. Don’t let the man get you down. I asked the Hare Krishna Guys in the Villiage to put in the good word and true to form they not only said they would but said also to chant Hare Krishna for good fortune?
[...] E. J. is in a bit of a battle, and you can show his support. Here is some of what he sent to Ty “the Yankee guy” Hildenbrandt, host of YFCR. The blog for which I have been writing for the past year has become the target of MLB Advanced Media and the Yankees. We received a Cease and Desist letter yesterday, ordering us to leave http://www.theyankeeuniverse.com, and claiming that we cannot use the term “Yankees” and “Yankee Stadium” because they are trademarked. We’ve enlisted a couple of pro-bono lawyers, and are planning on fighting it. We’re hoping to spread the word, and kick up some public pressure on MLBAM to make them think twice about abusing their fans. The full post is here; http://www.theyankeeuniverse.com/?p=12031 [...]
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The more I think about it, old billy was right
Let’s kill all the lawyers, kill ‘em tonight”
The Eagles/Don Henly
Lawyers trying to stay employed is what this all saounds like to me.
Just a note to say I have been a Red Sox fan for 34 years and a blogger for about 6 years and I support you 101%.
Full Disclosure: I’m a Red Sox fan.
I think this is really terrible, and I am sorry that it had to happen. I hope that you are able to keep the name but either way you are absolutely correct about baseball blogs and what they bring to the game.
I support you 100%. Just from reading your posts on the subject I can already tell that this is a place where educated fans come to discuss baseball. MLB should be in full support of that.
I love reading this blog but this is my first time posting. I am sure that some of you guys have seen this but the Yankees posted on 7/13/09 that they were starting “Yankees Universe.”
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20090713&content_id=5861466&vkey=pr_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy
It seems that you could counter sue them, but it is a charity.
You hit the nail on the head. This site is good for baseball and the Yankees, plain and simple. However, what you failed to note was that unfortunately, America is now a country that exists purely to ensure the well being of lawyers. Enriching the bank accounts of this group must take precedence over everything else, even civil liberty itself. That’s the real reason for the mess you and every other business in this country now faces in one form or another, including the New York Yankees. The dilution of productive economic activity at the hands of the legal profession, itself unproductive at best and destructive by nature, will ultimately destroy the nation if left unchecked. Remember that when you vote.
Red Sox fan as well and I came by way of a BoSox blog. I support you too Yankees.
The best thing you can do here is to try and work out a compromise. Think about it this way. Maybe you think MLBAM can take these kinds of fan sites on a case-by-case basis, but the reality is that they have to draw strict standards. We all know there will always be those that abuse the leeway MLBAM might be willing to grant fans like you who want to add to their product and not take away from it. The Yankees name is very serious brand name capable of drawing incredible interest and incredible interest always can be translated into revenue. The NYY (and MLB), through decades of hard work and high achievement, have developed their brand into something truly special. They have to protect it across the board with a hard line. You should not take this personally.
My advice would be not to fight city hall, but request some transition time and some conditions that will allow you to continue in the spirit of your venture with the least amount of disruption as possible. I’m sure the Yankees and MLBAM don’t want to discourage dedicated fans like yourself – so if you show understanding for their POV – I bet you’ll find them to be very agreeable. I don’t mean ask for money, but perhaps recognition? If you are something enough to pursue legally – then you are relevant enough (once your name gets changed) to be recognized (and linked) as a fan site? Especially in light of your cooperation. At least get linked for as much time as a transitional period might take. I know logistically – changing all the links and all the page names and all associative files for a new domain name would be a pain – but you use Apache? Not impossible to do in a reasonable time frame.
Remember, the best way to go about conflict is resolution. Make friends not enemies whenever possible. See the opportunity within the difficulty. Unless of course, you like paying exhorbitant lawyer fees.
JMO
Best of Luck
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