MLB Planning to Contest Overwatch League Logo Trademark
Mike Sanders / 7 years ago
You do, every now and then, hear about some very strange legal cases. Particularly when it comes to copyright. It looks like we have have another one on the horizon. Major League Baseball are preparing a legal contesting of the logo for Overwatch League. Here we go again!
Is the Overwatch League logo that similar to MLB?
Yes and no. If you are 80 years old, have spent too much time holding your sausage hostage and possibly suffer from acute blindness, then yes, maybe.
Hyperbole aside, here are the 2 logo’s together.
In my personal opinion, to ever say that they are similar is a stretch and if the report from PCGamer turns out to be true, I might have to wonder what MLB’s legal team is thinking here. As far as I’m concerned the logos are massively different and at least sufficiently so to not warrant such action.
My theory on why MLB is seeking action against Overwatch League.
Usually when we’re talking about a ridiculous law case, it’s about John McAfee. Here’s his most recent by the way, just incase you missed the latest edition. So call me crazy, but I think this all boils down to popularity. Major League Baseball is an industry in decline, to my understanding viewing figures are down and in general the sport is not as popular as it was 30 years ago. Esports on the other hand represents a dangerous new brand to existing mainstream sports teams. Overwatch League, to MLB, represents a real and direct threat to its own long-term survival. Therefore, I suspect that MLB might be launching this legal attack solely as a means of a bit of promotion in what could now represent, a larger demographic.
If people find ESports more entertaining than real sports, the problem lies within the sport itself and if I hear nothing else from my friends who watch baseballs, it’s nearly always that for the vast majority of the time it is mind-numbingly boring.
How times change. You might not agree with my little theory, but I would hope that we can all at least agree that there is no substance to this claim and that it is clearly ridiculous.
