Bygone Sports LLC, a company that specialises in historic trademarks, historic sports apparel, and intellectual property licensing, has filed papers in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan challenging claims brought last month by Major League Baseball Properties Inc. and Baseball Expos L.P.
According to Associated Press, the baseball organisations had asked the court to declare that the trademark does not belong to the company because its sole purpose in filing for a trademark was to capitalise on the naming of the new baseball team, formerly the Montreal Expos.
Bygone Sports co-founder Michael Bergman said in a press release that MLB failed to check who owned the rights to the Washington Nationals trademark before naming the new team. Bygone Sports has also sought unspecified damages and an accounting of all sales and profits obtained by Major League Baseball by using the name.
Bygone Sports applied for the trademark application in September 2002 and has asked the court to block the use of the name by MLB organisations in any way that interferes with its commercial interests.
