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LEGO Sues to Block Imports in Patent Fight Over Toy Dolls
March 11, 2015
By Jenna Greene, The National Law Journal
The U.S. International Trade Commission on Wednesday gave a green light to toy
maker LEGO A/S to bring a patent and copyright infringement case against three
competitors that are seeking to appeal more to girls.
In January 2012, LEGO launched its “Friends” line—little LEGO dolls named Mia,
Olivia, Emma, Andrea and Stephanie, who live in the imaginary world of Heartlake
City.
The company started its Friends line—which includes the Heartlake Shopping Mall
and dolls with “a multitude of shoe styles”—to make “Lego play more interesting
for girls,” according to Lego’s complaint. Lego said it found in studies that 91
percent of its primary users are boys.
LEGO sued three competitors: LaRose Industries of Randolph, N.J.; Mega Brands
Inc. of Montreal; and Best-Lock Construction Toys Inc. of Miami.
The competitors are attempting “to capitalize on LEGO’s success by copying its
innovations and products and preying on the vulnerability of LEGO’s youthful
consuming population, instead of developing their own product lines,” LEGO
counsel Elizabeth Alquist and Eric TeVelde of Day Pitney wrote. The company is
also represented by and Tom Schaumberg and Michael Doane of Adduci, Mastriani &
Schaumberg.
The product won “Toy of the Year” for the best toy overall at the 2013
International Toy Fair in New York, and with sales that more than doubled LEGO’s
initial projections.
Mega Brands, which was bought by Mattel Inc. last year, tried to persuade the
International Trade Commission (ITC) to knock out the complaint early. The
company argued that LEGO did not meet the domestic-industry requirement. LEGO’s
“global headquarters are in Denmark and its manufacturing of its products takes
place outside the United States, primarily in China. As such, there is a real
and serious question about its ability to meet the domestic-industry requirement
under Section 337,” wrote Mega Brands counsel Gary Hnath, a partner at Mayer
Brown. He asked the ITC to evaluate the case under a new fast-track pilot
program.
LEGO argued that it conducts “substantial licensing, research and development,
and technical activities within the United States,” fulfilling the
domestic-industry prerequisite.
Hnath countered that even if that’s the case, LEGO has to show “whether the
purported licensing activities relate to the design patents and copyrights
asserted in this investigation.” (Italics in the original).
The ITC commissioners sided with LEGO, voting March 11 to let the case proceed.
It will be tried by an administrative law judge, and could result in an import
ban on the infringing products.
Parallel patent infringement litigation is also pending in U.S. district court
in Connecticut.
From:
NationalLawJournal.com
United States International Trade Commission: Link of the
case.ITCblog.com
-end of report-
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