Subject:
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Re: LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.mediawatch
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Date:
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Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:19:59 GMT
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Viewed:
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12731 times
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Abner Finley wrote:
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LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
Nov. 3, 2009 -Press Association/UKPA-
LEGO, maker of the iconic toy brick, is launching a legal bid to win back its
trademark.
The company was last year stripped of the right to keep the brick’s
three-dimensional 2x4 shape as its EU trademark, after a challenge from rival
toy maker Mega Brands, which markets Mega Bloks.
The EU’s trademark office, OHIM, granted LEGO the legal right to the shape
in 1999, but then agreed with Mega Bloks’ case that a brick was a functional,
technical shape which could not be owned by any one company.
LEGO has already lost one courtroom bid to win the rights back, and its
lawyers return to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg again on
Tuesday.
They will claim that LEGO brick design contains characteristics that set it
apart from others - such as the design and size of the studs on top of the
bricks.
The company is challenging the previous OHIM decision, upheld by judges, that
functional shapes, such as a brick or any other “industrial design” must be
excluded from trade mark protection.
Otherwise, the court argued, one company would have a monopoly on a basic
shape which could be deemed to be “necessary to obtain a technical result”
LEGO claims that the company’s competitors do not need to copy the shape of
the LEGO brick to achieve the same “technical solution”, and that most
consumers identify their studded brick as the company’s brand.
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I suggest that LEGO design a new brick to achieve the same “technical solution.”
Otherwise, this sounds like another in a long string of fairly open-and-shut
cases along these lines.
Dave!
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
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| (...) I wonder if the clones would have enjoyed the success that they've had were they to have created a brick system that didn't replicate the dimensions of LEGO bricks. Clearly a case of wanting your brick and repeating it, too. JOHN (15 years ago, 15-Nov-09, to lugnet.mediawatch, FTX)
| | | Re: LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
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| (...) Why should they? There are plenty of other companies that have already done so. You've got K'Nex, Lincoln Logs, Erector, and several other construction toy systems that have no resemblance to LEGO bricks, proving that you don't need to (...) (15 years ago, 17-Nov-09, to lugnet.mediawatch, FTX)
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