Subject:
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Toy maker LEGO® loses appeal in the battle for the blocks
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lugnet.mediawatch
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 16 Jul 2003 20:36:17 GMT
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1651 times
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Toy maker LEGO® loses appeal in the battle for the blocks.
By BERTRAND MAROTTE -The Globe and Mail
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
MONTREAL -- Danish toy giant LEGO® System AS has lost another round in its
long-running battle to prevent upstart Canadian rival Mega Bloks Inc. from
producing building blocks similar to its famous interlocking mini-bricks.
The Federal Court of Appeal of Canada has dismissed LEGO appeal of a ruling last
year that rejected its claim of trademark rights over the "look" of its
ubiquitous toy construction blocks.
LEGO, which has seen its dominance of the construction toy market challenged by
Montreal-based Mega Bloks over the past few years, claimed its rival was
infringing on exclusive use of the eight-knob bricks.
"It appears to me that the appellants are attempting to extend the monopoly they
once held over those construction bricks and their knobs through the guise of a
trademark," Mr. Justice Edgar Sexton wrote in his judgment delivered Monday.
LEGO officials said yesterday that the company, based in the remote village of
Billund, 300 kilometres from Copenhagen, is mulling whether to seek leave to
appeal the decision in the Supreme Court of Canada.
"We are very sorry about the decision. We're still considering whether to apply
to have the case heard by the Supreme Court of Canada," said Melinda Carter, a
spokeswoman at LEGO North American subsidiary, LEGO Systems Inc., which is based
in Enfield, Conn.
Jette Orduna, a spokeswoman at corporate headquarters in Billund, insisted that
the legal challenge against Mega Bloks in Canada and several European countries
is not related to commercial rivalry but only being fought out of concern that
the public is safeguarded from imitations.
"We're concerned about consumer confusion."
Mega Bloks spokesman Brahm Segal said the home-turf decision is a significant
one for the company, which began producing its toy bricks in the 1980s but has
since diversified into a distinctive product range under the senior executive
team of Marc and Vic Bertrand, the thirtysomething sons of founder Vic Sr.
"This is important to us. The court says we can continue producing and selling
here. LEGO is trying to limit what we can do in that respect."
Mega Bloks has expanded to become Canada's biggest home-grown toy maker.
It has a 20-per-cent share of the North American construction-toy sector,
compared with an estimated 60 to 70 per cent for LEGO.
In its July 14 decision, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the protection
of functional devices such as the knob -- or stud -- design is the proper domain
of patent law and not trademark law.
LEGO patent on the bricks -- which goes back almost 50 years -- expired in 1988
and the company cannot rely on so-called "distinguishing guise" or trademark
protection to defend the "knob configuration" of its products, according to the
judgment.
The 57-page decision examined a number of previous cases, including one
involving a trademark fight over the well-known car air freshener in the shape
of an evergreen tree that dangles from the rear-view mirror.
"In my opinion, [the air-freshener case] can be distinguished from the case at
hand because in [it,] if the branches were cut off the evergreen tree mark, it
would still function as an air freshener . . .," Mr. Justice Sexton wrote.
"In contrast, in our case, if the knobs were cut off the LEGO bricks, the brick
would not function -- it would not fasten together with another brick."
-end of report-
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