The name “Evil Empire” may have started as a derogatory term for the New York Yankees, but it is now apparently one that they take pride in and enjoy profiting from. Legally speaking, the Yankees are now officially known as the Evil Empire.
According to the NY Daily News, trademark judges blocked an entrepreneur from registering the phrase “Baseballs Evil Empire” earlier this month. That name, they say, belongs to the Yankees.
“The record shows that there is only one EVIL EMPIRE in baseball and it is the New York Yankees,” the judges wrote in their decision.
The company that was seeking to trademark the phrase is known as Evil Enterprises Inc. The goal was to earn the exclusive rights to print the phrase “Baseballs Evil Empire” on shirts, hats and other merchandise. Major League Baseball objected to the trademark on behalf of the Yankees, using hundreds of news stories that used the phrase “Evil Empire” to describe the Yankees in support of their claim.
Boston Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino coined the phrase in 2002, saying that the “Evil Empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America” when the Yankees swooped in and signed Jose Contreras, who the Red Sox were targeting. The name stuck and is frequently used as a reference to the Yankees’ deep pockets and ability to seemingly acquire any player they seek.
The Evil Empire wins the exclusive rights to call itself the Evil Empire? How fitting.
