The Evil Empire™®©

Here’s an interesting little story from Deadspin, which tells the tale of the term “Evil Empire.” The Yankees are trying to prevent the use of the phrase to parody the franchise, especially when people are “trying to illegally cash in on and otherwise trade off the goodwill of an MLB team’s identity for his or her own commercial gain without the Club’s consent.” The phrase isn’t exactly intellectual property though, and in fact it was first used close to 30 years ago. I can understand the Yankees (and MLB) wanting to protect their properties, but the term “Evil Empire” isn’t theirs. Anyway, I thought this was an interesting one for you legal buffs out there, so check it out.