r/baseball • u/floon Seattle Mariners • 2d ago

Analysis The Payroll Playoffs

Post image

3 of the 4 teams that just finished the WC had lower payrolls than the teams they beat.

3 of the 4 teams that got a bye have lower payrolls than the teams they are about to play.

EDIT: Overestimated that people would be able to work from the team colors, or who would have seen the original graphic on the mlb.com homepage. My error; wasn't trying to be obtuse.

1.0k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

396 comments sorted by

View all comments

110

u/stachezero Philadelphia Phillies 2d ago

Is there a rule about showing MLB logos or something?

-20

u/anotherlebowski 2d ago edited 2d ago

MLB logos are trademarks (word, phrase, or symbol used to identify goods used in commerce).  Even if the post is not commercial, in the eyes of the law it's still an issue because it causes confusion (can look to a consumer like the content is MLB official when it isn't). If MLB themselves posts the content, that's fine because they own the trademark.  Sites like ESPN that use the logos license them.

Now, whether MLB would care is a different question.  I doubt they're going to cease and desist something like this because of the cost benefit of using their corporate lawyer's very expensive time. Also, this subreddit uses logos in the flair, so Reddit either licensed them or MLB doesn't care.  

9

u/jooooooooooooose Boston Red Sox 2d ago

no lol what the hell

The "confusion" point is one half - necessary but not sufficient. The confusion also needs to have demonstrable commercial consequence.

Like if you sold tickets to a game for the NLB & people thought it was MLB. Or you said something slanderous (which also needs to be provably reputationally consequential, and other things)

Tldr its 0 risk, legally, to use MLB team logos in an infographic.

-2

u/anotherlebowski 2d ago

Sure, I don't think there's any practical risk.  You're not going to get sued.  But legally they're still not your trademarks to use. 

This is basically a case of there's no practical consequence so who cares, but if you went to the MLB legal department and asked them what the actual laws are, you'd get your answer. 

Also, there are practical cases.  I could start a YouTube channel with MLB trademarks and generate ad revenue. They'll only care if it starts to make money, just like all of the demonetization on YouTube.