 | | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) Goodness. I can think of close to a dozen brands that use some variation of the tubes-and-studs clutch system, so recognition could definitely be a problem! (URL) This item> has been mentioned previously on LUGNET, but it seems relevant to (...) (20 years ago, 4-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general, FTX)
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| | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) Uh-- did they really 'allow' it to expire? I was under the impression that the patent lasted 20 years, then 'tough noogies'. 1958 was the patent year for the stud-and-tube system, so 1978 would fit the bill... I was interested to see some of (...) (20 years ago, 4-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) Hmm. My mistake. I thought you could renew patents, but I guess not. (...) Those are pretty neat! Dave! (20 years ago, 4-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) Well, TLC certainly seems to agree, which is why they've been fighting tooth-and-nail to make everyone else stop making clone bricks. (...) Patents expire, whether you want them to or not. The idea is that you can patent something that you (...) (20 years ago, 4-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general, FTX)
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| | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) That's only because Mickey Mouse can't be patented. If he could, you'd be able to renew patents by now. Disney would have seen to it. (...) Since TLC only owned the patent on the fully tubed variety, and none of those clones seems to use a (...) (20 years ago, 4-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) I dunno about "a few" decades since there was only about an 11 year overlap before the warehouse fire :) Truth is there were lots of similar products on the market going back to the early 1930's (about 15-20 years before Automatic Binding (...) (20 years ago, 5-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) Whoops, you're right. I was thinking back to the beginning of the company, but the ABBs weren't introduced until '49, and introduction of the stud-and-tube design in '58 was when they really took off. The warehouse fire in '60 wasn't really (...) (20 years ago, 5-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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(...) Actually, the original 'tubes patent' explicitly included substituted shapes for the tubes, such as crosses. TLG patents even what they will *not* produce, and in this case quite understandably. Eric Brok (20 years ago, 6-Aug-04, to lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general)
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