Baseball’s Vigilantes : Logo Protection Is the Issue, Not Protection of the Product

Since the mid-1960s, when baseball began to recognize the value of its logos and created a properties division to cash in on them, the commissioner’s office has been extremely diligent about who gets to use what and for how much.

There are official sponsors and licensees for just about everything in the game, and the companies that carry those designations pay handsomely for the privilege.

That was the cause of the recent Little League flap when baseball insisted the kids’ uniforms be purchased from licensed manufacturers, who pay a fee for the right to recreate the logos. It was a legitimate complaint, designed to protect companies who are baseball’s partners in this complicated world of commerce.

The license makes the uniforms official. It is a guarantee that they satisfy certain major league standards. Using unlicensed ones would endorse what baseball identifies as an inferior product.

The imprimaturs of the 28 franchises, including names and logos of every team from the Tigers and Twins to the Astros and Angels, have intrinsic value to the clubs and consequently they all carry a price for those who wish to use them. There are no freebies here.

“In order to maintain control, we have to protect our licensees,” said Dave Montgomery, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Philadelphia Phillies and a member of the board of directors of Major League Baseball Properties. “We make every effort to support our licensees and protect against the use of our trademarks without permission.”

If baseball were less concerned with this issue, anybody from plumbers to pipefitters could dress up in a uniform with the distinctive logo of Montgomery’s Phillies. The next thing you know, they’d be running around, claiming they were major leaguers. That simply would not do.

Trademark and product protection are a big deal in businesses everywhere. Running off with some company’s logo, baseball or otherwise, just isn’t done. It would only lead to an almost certainly unpleasant enounter with the licensing vigilantes, who are everywhere.

Each year, at World Series time -- remember the World Series? -- there were highly publicized roundups of vendors peddling souvenirs that were not properly licensed by baseball. What could be worse than laying out cold, hard cash to some guy on the street for a phony pennant or fake pin? Who wants make-believe keepsakes?

This is not nickel-and-dime stuff, either. In 1992, the last year for which figures are available, Major League Baseball Properties generated $78.6 million in net revenue for the clubs. And that total, by the way, is just 6 percent of $1.3 billion in retail sales.

For baseball to be charged with ganging up on kids borders on the ridiculous. Montgomery was mystified by the issue. If anything, baseball promotes a link with kid players.

“It would be shortsighted to do otherwise,” he said. “We encourage participation of kids in the game at a young level and identifying with a big league club. That’s in our best interests.”

In fact, the commissioner’s office contributes $1 million annually to youth baseball and individual clubs kick another $4.5 million beyond that. Monies earned from licensing fees pay a portion of that contribution.

Product protection extends beyond apparel, too.

“Suppose somebody wants to use the Phillies in the script of a movie,” Montgomery said. “The exposure might be fine to a degree. But maybe it’s a movie you don’t want to be involved in. If it’s offensive, it could reflect negatively on the ballclub. You’ve got to have some control over things like that.”

Montgomery said there was also an issue of quality control. Licensing protects the consumer. It is a guarantee of excellence. Otherwise, some shady manufacturer might try to pass off an inferior product as the real thing.

Who would want a replacement shirt or souvenir?