For any fellow baseball card collecting IP attorneys out there, it has been an exciting year due to a recent legal dispute between card manufacturer Upper Deck and Major League (Baseball) Properties.

In short, the dispute at hand arises from Upper Deck’s printing and distribution of baseball cards showing players photographed in their MLB uniforms, absent any license from MLB Properties to do so.  Upper Deck does have a license to use players’ likenesses from the MLB Player’s Association, and it does not use MLB trademarks other than display of action photographs from MLB games.

A host of interesting trademark issues are raised by the dispute, and certainly both parties have a great deal to lose or gain with the results of the suit.  Beckett Magazine, a popular collector’s publication, has been closely following the case on their blog.  Beckett has also published some of my commentary on the case, and I’ll likely be working on something a bit more in depth as well.  For those wishing to view court documents directly, Justia is hosting most of them.

Our original iPhone Developer Legal Guide, posted half a year ago, garnered a really great set of responses from the development community.  Some responses contained very helpful and constructive criticisms on things the Guide should have included as well as a correction or two that needed making.  Taking into consideration this valuable input, we are happy to announce today the release of Version 2 of the Guide, which is now over twice as long and includes a helpful list of Resources.

We will continue to update the Legal Guide and we hope it will long be the first and best resource for information on legal issues of interest iPhone app developers.  Please note that you may freely distribute the PDF version of the Guide, so long as no alterations are made to it.

Sections included in the guide are:

• Choosing an application name
• Reading and understanding the iPhone Developer terms and conditions
• Using third party services or materials in your app
• Using push notifications or in-app purchasing
• What are your terms and conditions?
• Protecting your copyrights
• Patents for apps?

Look no further than this news story about an Iowa t-shirt company that felt the very painful sting of failing to clear their trademark.  The lessons that this company learned the hard way are the same ones I try to convey to my clients as early as possible in their business life cycle.

The best and most critical message from the story, and from any tale of a trademark dispute, is:

“For a company like this, the brand name is pretty much everything,” he said. “We don’t have an invention that’s ours that we sell to people. All we’re selling is the name of the company.”

I would add that even if you have a great invention and the patents to go with it, your brand name and the reputation it garners is likely to be one of the most important, if not the most important, assets of your business.  This is more easily comprehended if you think of all the customer service, marketing, support, networking, and business development that goes into creating an association in your customers’ and potential customers’ minds between your business and quality of product or service that you deliver — all of this is wrapped up in your trademark and would largely have to be rebuilt if you were forced to change it.

To be sure, trademarks are more important to certain kinds of businesses than others.  Any business that sells a product or service to a retail customer base, where purchase price is small and decisions are made relatively quickly, ought to be especially careful about trademark selection and protection.  But any company that would like to avoid getting the news that they’ll have to change their name or their product’s name should spend the time and effort in clearing and protecting their marks from the get go.