A trademark appeals board has ruled a clothing company can't just sell shirts for Yankees haters labeled "Evil Empire" because the Yankees, in fact, are the Evil Empire.
Just like that scene in "Miracle on 34th Street," where mailmen deliver bag after bag of letters addressed to Santa Claus, only eviler, Major League Baseball submitted copies of numerous articles and blog posts to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board showing that every body knows the Yankees are the Evil Empire.
The board acknowledged receipt and said that because the Yankees are actually Darth Vader incarnate, therefore the clothing company can't sell Evil Empireware without approval of the baseball team, which did not want to give it.
Specifically, Major League Baseball provided:
Seventeen attached exhibits including news stories using the term EVIL EMPIRE to refer to the Yankees, Internet blogs and message boards where the term EVIL EMPIRE is used to refer to the Yankees, a Wikipedia baseball glossary, printouts of applicant's web pages showing use of the phrase BASEBALLS EVIL EMPIRE to refer to the Yankees, and a dictionary definition of "evil."
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Evil ruling [2] | 75.05 KB |