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Subject: 
Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general
Date: 
Wed, 4 Aug 2004 21:35:28 GMT
Viewed: 
2482 times
  
In lugnet.mediawatch, David Eaton wrote:
In lugnet.mediawatch, Dave Schuler wrote:
<http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2003/15/c2327.html This item>
has been mentioned previously on LUGNET, but it seems relevant to bring it up
again.  The article points out that LEGO allowed the patent on the 2x4 brick,
(presumably including the tube/stud system) to expire in 1978, so they opened
the door for imitators.  I can't imagine why they wouldn't have renewed the
patent, but now they're reaping what they've sown.

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...

Hmm.  My mistake.  I thought you could renew patents, but I guess not.

I was interested to see some of the other imitators from before 1978, though:

http://www.personal.u-net.com/~lilleker/otherpics/lego-t6.jpg

Kinda cool. But even before that, with Lego's predacessors like KiddieCraft,
MiniBrix, etc, it seems like nobody could make the idea of interlocking bricks
take off like Lego did. Seems like Godtfred and maybe even Kjeld were the ones
responsible for making Lego a real hit.

Those are pretty neat!

Dave!



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
 
(...) 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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