Trouble for one of the younger companies in the teetering sports card industry.

Management at the Upper Deck Company today settled a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them by Major League Baseball in February. MLB granted Topps an exclusive licensing deal over the summer, but Upper Deck started producing cards with MLB teams and logos anyway.

Topps had sought more than $2 million from the Carlsbad, Calif.-based memorabilia company, but under the settlement, Upper Deck promises to cease producing trading cards with MLB trademarks on them.

Upper Deck can and will continue to sell its last three recently released baseball products currently on store shelves: 2009 Signature Stars, 2009 Ultimate Collection and 2010 Upper Deck Series One.

"As a company, we are changing the direction of Upper Deck’s baseball products going forward. We are looking forward to creating fresh and innovative set content that will continue to get collectors excited,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s director of Sports Brands.

It’s been a bad go of it for Upper Deck since its failed bid last year to acquire Topps, its biggest rival. In January, the company agreed to pay millions to video game giant Konami after a dispute over counterfeit Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards.

After announcing that it would be the exclusive printer and supplier of NBA/basketball trading cards next season, Panini announced another coup Friday, buying Donruss Playoff L.P., a major cards producer in its own right.

Arlington, Texas-based Donruss produces cards under the Playoff, Leaf and Score labels. It was established in 1954 and was known throughout the 80s and 90s for “Rated Rookies” and “Diamond Kings.”

Donruss is currently publishing officially licensed products for the NFL under license.

The acquisition means that the newly former American branch of the Italian Panini will have its headquarters in Texas. It will take over NFL products in May and start NBA publishing in October.

Panini is also the exclusive producer of cards and sticker albums for FIFA soccer and trading cards for the Harry Potter movies.

Upper Deck is releasing several new, rare Joe DiMaggio cards in 2009

Upper Deck and the estate of the great New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio reached an agreement to produce trading cards that include DiMaggio memorabilia and cut signature cards.

To commemorate the exclusive deal for UD, a limited Joe DiMaggio card, #0, will be packed inside 2009 Series One Baseball packs coming out this week. The card features “Joltin’ Joe” next to a chalkboard after he tied the Major League Baseball consecutive games hitting streak record at 44. On the chalkboard it calls out “44 EQUALS RECORD” with a smiling DiMaggio kneeling behind it.

“We are thrilled to be able to work with the estate of one of the biggest names in baseball history,” said Jason Masherah, Upper Deck’s senior brand manager. “Collectors and sports fans should be excited about finding Joe DiMaggio content inside of many of Upper Deck’s 2009 baseball card releases. In this day and age when records fall frequently, DiMaggio still holds one of the most amazing baseball achievements of all time.”

It’s baseball card season again kiddies!

Every now and then we like to throw down a mention about sports cards and trading cards.

Pay attention to Upper Deck 2008-09 Basketball, if you’re a fan of that side of the hobby. Whole boxes are coming out dirt cheap. It’s a 200-card base set without many bells and whistles — great for a younger collector or just a really good basketball fan who wants to collect a whole set easily. I cracked a square hobby-edition box with 24 packs of 18 cards. It’s very easy to form the whole set.

There are much better options on the football side of things with Upper Deck Icons 2008. Boxes are going for $75-$100 with 10 packs of six cards in each box. You get two jersey cards and an autograph in every box, so if you’re at the card store and pull a pack of these, there’s about a 1-in-3 chance that you’ll get something good.

On the cheap side, get 2008 Upper Deck Football First Edition. You can get a box for $20, and you get a Starquest Foil insert in every one of the 36 packs of 10 cards. The base set is 225 cards, and you will probably make it with one box. The big draw with this set is that it has 75 rookie cards.

If you’re a huge Peyton Manning fan, I’d spend the $20 on the box and just leave it sealed because he’s on the cover.

If you’re really all about the rookies, for under $10 you can get 2008 Upper Deck Football Rookie Premiere. It comes in a 30-card box set including Rashard Mendenhall and Limas Sweed from my always-using-their-draft-picks-well Steelers, and some guy named Darren McFadden.

I didn’t even crack open my box. It’s a set, and I’m holding onto it.

Remember, you’re buying these cards because you enjoy the hobby and love the sports. Cards aren’t worth anything anymore, and unless you get lottery-ticket lucky and pull a super rare card, don’t expect to turn a profit on your cards. And if you do get a super rare valuable card, sell it right away or end up like all those guys that held onto Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens rookie cards (or worse, bought it at their peak) and now have some useful toilet paper.

“I’m not homeless yet.”

It’s‚ a fairly low-key way to express the kind of professional success illustrator Grant Gould is experiencing.

Recently hired by Lucasfilm Ltd., Gould is part of a team that’s‚ working on The Clone Wars online web comics. Released in tandem with the television show, the comics will supplement the plots and characters found in the weekly episodes.

Star Wars fans are no stranger to Gould’s work. His art can be found all over the official site as well as illustrations and “How to Draw” tutorials, as well as on the Topps Revenge of the Sith Artist Sketch card series.

Gould thanks fellow artist >Tom Hodges, who is also working on the online Clone Wars comic, for his start in professional illustration in 2004. Hodges, who was working on an online strip for Hyperspace, a section of StarWars.com, told Gould about the opportunity to draw for the Topps series. As a fan of the Star Wars saga, Gould jumped at the chance to work on such a well known story.

“I enjoy drawing characters that people are familiar with, but giving them my own spin,” he said in a recent interview with Blast.

With his first professional illustrating job under his belt, Gould continued to work on other projects such as trading card sets for many popular comics and television series along with personal commissions.

“So I knew I had to make a decision — start cutting back on the illustration jobs, or quit my day job and try my hand at fulltime freelance illustration,” Gould said. “I guess I figured I’m still young enough where if I completely screw up, no harm, no foul — at least I can say I tried it out.”

“I took my chances and quit my day job, and dove headfirst into the scary world of fulltime freelance.”

Scary for many reasons,‚ not the smallest of which was the fact that Gould had little formal training and education in illustration.

“In college (Brown College in Minnesota) I had a few classes on ‘life drawing’ and such, but I would say for the most part I’m self-taught … Illustration is like any skill in that the more you do it, the more you learn and the better you get.”

Gould has had many informal‚ chances to learn, as well. “In high school, I was the guy who would draw silly cartoons and doodle Ninja Turtles in my notebooks.”

Gould was a graphic designer for about seven years and drawing in his free time before turning his attentions to illustrating full time. “I think anatomy books and tutorial books helped a lot, too, in my younger years,” he said.

Finally, Gould recognizing that the skill of observation as helped his artwork a lot. “Watching how people move, studying body shapes and faces (both in real life and in cartoons and movies), and really noticing how things fit together — I think all of it contributes to how I draw.”

And how he draws has gotten him where he is today.

“Now that I’m working on the Clone Wars online comic, it feels like I’ve graduated and am getting to play with the big boys,” Gould said.‚ He’s currently also working on a comic of his own. “I wrote and drew my own creator-owned graphic novel, and it’s coming out this November.” Wolves of Odin, as the name implies, focuses on Norse mythology with a bit of the supernatural thrown in.

“It’s genuinely exciting to wake up and work on something that you love…I think Young Grant would be very happy to see where I’m at today in my career.”

After all, he’s still not homeless.