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Subject: 
Re: Well, this isn't good (especially for the Disney board here)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.disney
Date: 
Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:44:29 GMT
Viewed: 
4690 times
  
In lugnet.disney, Kelly McKiernan wrote:
In lugnet.general, Joe Meno wrote:
* SNIP *
MONTREAL, Nov. 12 - Mega Bloks Inc. today announced that it has agreed to enter
into licensing agreements with Disney Consumer Products and its affiliates, for
the creation of construction toys featuring beloved Disney(R) characters,
including Disney's Winnie the Pooh(R), Disney Princesses and classic characters

I saw that yesterday at Fred Meyer, there was a huge aisle display of
construction toys just waiting for the day-after-Thanksgiving sales. A big part
of it consisted of LEGO tubs (700 pc buckets, good assortment), and right next
to that pallet was a pallet of Megablok tubs with the MB "Pooh" assortment. At
first I thought it was LEGO, since they had the Disney Pooh license a few years
ago. Then the horrible reality of the MB logo sunk in.

Then you'd better brace yourself--MegaBloks has recently licenced some of Marvel
Comics' characters, and Spiderman is the first set to be revealed so far.
Potentially, you'll see LEGO Spiderman and MB Spiderman together on the very
same shelf this holiday season!

If I, a dyed-in-the-wool LEGO maniac (certified), can be confused (even if only
for a few seconds), then there's DEFINITE potential for marketplace confusion. I
wonder just what type of licenses Disney insists on that lets them switch vendor
companies like that? I know they have the mindset of "Sue first, ask questions
in court" but this is pretty ridiculous. (BTW, even though I buy some Disney
merchandise, I am not a big fan of their heavyhanded business practices.)

This confusion can't be good for TLC's brand recognition in the marketplace. I
hope to see something on LEGO's web site saying they're filing an injunction or
something, but it probably won't happen. And if it did, it probably wouldn't
help. *sigh*

That's a tough call.  I suppose that Disney or LEGO could stipulate that neither
party will enter into a substantially-identical license agreement with any third
party for X years after the primary license expires, but it seems unlikely that
either party would submit to such terms.

Dave!



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Well, this isn't good (especially for the Disney board here)
 
In lugnet.general, Joe Meno wrote: * SNIP * (...) I saw that yesterday at Fred Meyer, there was a huge aisle display of construction toys just waiting for the day-after-Thanksgiving sales. A big part of it consisted of LEGO tubs (700 pc buckets, (...) (20 years ago, 22-Nov-04, to lugnet.disney)

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