The question of whether baseball cards are protected by copyright law is a complex one that involves analyzing both the individual creative elements that make up a baseball card as well as how the courts have interpreted copyright in this context. At a high level, the various creative components that go into the design and production of a baseball card can potentially be copyrighted, but the factual information and statistics related to the baseball player cannot. Let’s take a deeper look at the different parts of this issue:
To understand copyright and baseball cards, it’s important to first understand what can and cannot be copyrighted. Copyright law protects original works of authorship fixed in a tangible form of expression. This includes creative or artistic works such as photographs, graphics, text, and other expressive elements. Facts, ideas, systems, and methods cannot be copyrighted. With baseball cards, items like the photographs of the players, original artwork or graphics on the cards, and creative written descriptions or bios could potentially be protected by copyright. Meanwhile, purely factual information like a player’s statistics, team affiliation, and biographical details would not be subject to copyright.
In 1989, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit considered copyright issues related to Chicago Baseball Club, Inc. v. Saltesman. In this case, the Chicago Cubs sued over the alleged copyright infringement of some elements of their yearly team programs. In their decision, the court stated that while certain elements like written descriptions or graphics could be protected, purely factual information related to games could not be copyrighted. This set an important precedent that factual data related to players, teams, stats, etc. are not covered by copyright. They still left open the possibility that expressive elements or creative contributions above and beyond the facts could potentially be covered.
Several decades later, in 2020 the U.S. District Court of New Jersey ruled on the case Topps Company Inc. v. D+E Creative LLC. Topps, a major baseball card manufacturer, sued a rival company alleging copyright infringement over certain visual elements of their baseball cards. In their ruling, the court stated that the original photographs used on Topps cards were indeed protected by copyright law. They also cited previous precedents and said strictly factual information related to baseball cannot be protected. So while things like the posed photographs or graphic designs could be copyrighted, basic data like names, stats, positions played could not.
Taking all of this into consideration, most legal experts today agree that while the individual creative works and contributions that go into baseball card design may be protected by copyright, the factual information presented cannot be. Things like the posed photographs of players, drawings or illustrations, unique graphic designs surrounding the images or stats, and original written bios or descriptions would likely be found to be covered under copyright law. Meanwhile, purely factual details like a player’s name, team, batting average, or career statistics would not be subject to copyright protection, as they are simply facts not creative works.
Copyright law provides a nuanced perspective when applied to baseball cards. While certain images, graphics, and expressive elements can be protected, the underlying factual sports-related information and data they display likely falls outside the bounds of copyright. Both individual card producers and the courts have established this balance over decades of litigation and precedents. So in essence – the creative works are copyrightable, but the facts are not. This framework guides how copyright functions for one of America’s most iconic sports and collectibles hobbies – baseball cards. The line between protected creative elements and non-protected facts, though sometimes blurry, remains an important copyright principle for the baseball card industry.
