Subject:
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Re: Trademark defense doesn't work vs Mega Bloks
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.mediawatch, lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 5 Aug 2004 16:57:07 GMT
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Viewed:
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2737 times
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In lugnet.mediawatch, David Eaton wrote:
> 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 Bricks), and none of them made it big, and Lego was no different
> until the late 50's. Nearly the 1st decade of Lego brick sales weren't
> anything fantastic.
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 instrumental in the success of the LEGO brick, though, since it was
already the most popular toy in Europe by that time.
> (and also 1 year after Hilary Page's death-- I know I read one site that
> speculated that there might have been a possible connection between the two
> companies considering the immediate innovations on Lego's part, although the
> 'compensation' Lego paid them later on would seem to contradict that theory.
> Guess it would help to know more about how Godtfred got ahold of the
> KiddieCraft bricks-- from one site I read it almost sounded like there was
> some correspondence between Hilary and Godtfred)
Okay, this is all news to me (I only recently found out that TLC didn't invent
the ABBs), but I know that there are times when it's considered to be more cost
effective to pay someone off rather than fight a long and expensive court battle
to prove that you shouldn't have to pay them anything. Especially if there's
any chance that you might lose.
> That's my guess. He made the list following the lament of a buyer in the toy
> industry, who complained about the lack of a real toy 'system'. It sounds
> like this might really have been something merchandisers were generally
> interested in, and what helped Lego get its brand awareness out the door.
I'm not sure if they used the 10 Characteristics as a marketing tool right away,
but it was the defining change that got them to focus on the LEGO brick as the
core product.
> (That and adding a few other specialized elements like sloped roofs)
Hmm, yeah, they did introduce sloped brickes in '58, so those can't be ruled out
as a contributing factor in the sudden bloom in popularity.
> My guess is that was probably less likely Ole Kirk's doing-- By '58 Ole Kirk
> was ... uh... darn. Born sometime in the 1890's, I forget when-- but around
> 60-70. I'd probably guess the idea came from the younger blood of the
> company,
He was still running the company until his death, so without specific info from
TLC it's hard to say whether it was a sudden inspiration, or if it was the
result of an improvement directive handed down from the top.
> though not necessarily Godtfred by any means.
That's true. I don't remember ever reading who actually invented the idea.
Anyone working for the company could have come up with it, but as long as they
were employed by TLC at the time, the company would have first dibs on patenting
the design.
> Ole Kirk seems more to be commended for building a strong foundation for the
> company-- He managed to grow to a fairly large toy company through a
> depression and a war, all from being pretty much completely on his own,
> without going under, all from a small backwater town in an equally small
> country.
Oh, definitely. If Godtfred built the house, Ole Kirk clearly laid the
foundation that it sits on. He started his carpentry business in '16, switched
it over to toy production in '32, coined the LEGO name in '34, set the defining
company policy (Only the best is good enough) in '36, bought the first
injection-molding machine in Denmark in '47, and got them started on ABBs in
'49.
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