Subject:
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Re: Lego copyrights native language
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.nz
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Date:
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Tue, 24 Apr 2001 00:00:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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2511 times
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In lugnet.general, Trevor Alvey writes:
> International toy company Lego could now prevent Maori from marketing toys
> with Maori names, intellectual property law specialist John Hackett said
> yesterday.
> "If a New Zealand company wants to use the name 'tohunga' for a toy, they
> would be stopped by Lego because they have rights in that name," he said.
> [...]
> Tribunal claimant lawyer Maui Solomon is complaining to Lego and the World
> Intellectual Property Office over the actions of Danish company Lego in
> co-opting Maori words for its new range of Bionicle hi-tech toys.
I had been under the impression (as in just assumed) that LEGO made up
cool-sounding names from scratch. Is this report saying that LEGO took
actual words from a language of an indigenous tribe in New Zealand and isn't
giving credit where credit was due?
How many names were "lifted" from the language? Regardless of any legal
issues, if this is true, then this seems particularly insensitive of TLC and
isn't a good sign that they "get it" in the new global/Internet economy.
Sigh...
I mean, if they took words from multiple languages, that's one thing, but if
they all came from a single native language source somewhere, and that
source isn't being credited, AND that source has been slighted by this AND
is complaining to WIPO, then wow is LEGO ever being idiotic. God help them.
--Todd
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Lego copyrights native language
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| Since Todd brought this back up, I'd been meaning to look into this myself...and have. Interestingly enough, looking at the box and tube from my Tahu/Vakama set from S@H, every catalog/mini catalog I have, the Bionicle and LEGO web sites and LEGO (...) (24 years ago, 24-Apr-01, to lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.nz)
| | | Re: Lego copyrights native language
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| "Todd Lehman" <lehman@javanet.com> wrote in message news:3ae4c155.227241...net.com... (...) if (...) them. (...) If you run the various names of people and places from Bionical through a search engine you will see they come up with lots of hits, (...) (24 years ago, 24-Apr-01, to lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.nz)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Lego copyrights native language
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| From (URL) could corner Maori names 10 April 2001 By JONATHAN MILNE International toy company Lego could now prevent Maori from marketing toys with Maori names, intellectual property law specialist John Hackett said yesterday. "If a New Zealand (...) (24 years ago, 9-Apr-01, to lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.nz)
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