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Wednesday
March 19, 2008
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MLB Shuts Down Web Site Selling Team-Inspired Obama Shirts

MLB Shuts Down Web Site Selling
Baseball Inspired Obama T-Shirts

MLB has "forced the closure" of Obamaofdreams.com, a Web site run by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) supporter Morris Levin, who "tweaked team logos to create t-shirts promoting" Obama's presidential bid, according to THE SMOKING GUN. The site last month began selling shirts for $19.99 and had "more than a dozen versions available." An MLB lawyer sent Levin a "cease and desist letter threatening legal action," as MLB officials contended that the shirts "violated the league's trademarks." MLB officials "apparently did not consider the Obama shirts as protected political speech or as transformative of its trademarks" (THESMOKINGGUN.com, 3/18). Levin said that on March 4 he stopped sales and shut down the site. Levin: "I started the site as a fun way to show support for Sen. Obama, and I'm a big Phillies fan. I did not make any profits on this, and I think that [MLB] has a fantastic product of which I am a big consumer" (AP, 3/18).

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