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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Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:47:05 GMT
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Viewed:
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12850 times
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In lugnet.mediawatch, David Laswell wrote:
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In lugnet.mediawatch, John Neal wrote:
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But it is their system. What the clones should be doing is creating
unique bricks that work within the LEGO system, not recreating them.
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Doesn’t work that way. Without a core of standard basic elements, the best
they’d be able to hope for is a business model similar to what you see with
BrickForge/BrickArms/Little Armory etc. If all you can make are elements
that enhance the basic bricks, it limits you to a niche market that really
wasn’t even feasible ten years ago. Essentially, it puts the competitor in a
situation where all they can sell are parts packs, and where full sets are
all but impossible. You know, unless they did something goofy like make all
their bricks two plates high so they fit into the gap between LEGO bricks and
LEGO plates, but still adhered to the LEGO dimensions well enough that there
wouldn’t be issues like you get with Tyco’s plates being 50% taller than LEGO
plates.
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Scaling the dimensions up or down doesn’t work either, because the whole
point of copying the LEGO system is to be able to use someone else’s existing
LEGO collection as a selling point for why they’d prefer to buy your clone
bricks over, say, K’Nex. This is the reason that MB is so much more
successful than any of the non-compatible construction toys out there. LEGO
is the dominant brand on the market (partly due to quality and how long the
system has been around, but I’d say mostly due to the fact that it’s by far
the most versatile of the construction toys...and minifigs don’t hurt in that
regard, either), and by making stuff that’s compatible/identical, you benefit
from their advertising budget (I guarantee that you’ll see more LEGO TV ads
than you will for all other construction toys combined, including MB...in the
US at least), you benefit from the fact that many people won’t notice that
they’re buying clone-branded sets when toy stores intentionally place them
right next to each other, and you benefit from the fact that you can offer
bigger sets at lower prices. That last one is a huge selling point for a lot
of parents because all they’re going to see when they look at it is something
they’re just going to have to throw away in a few years, so the less it costs
is just that much less money they have to “waste” on it.
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I completely agree with all of what you are saying, Dave. What I am saying is
that it doesn’t seem right for a company to sponge off of another without
providing compensation or something. Licensing, for example.
It is little wonder why clones can provide a cheaper product-- they are using
TLG for all of their financial heavy lifting WRT advertising.
It just doesn’t seem right.
JOHN
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
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| (...) That's not going to happen. After their experience with Samsonite, I guarantee TLG will want nothing to do with that sort of arrangement, especially in a market where they're already selling their own products. (...) More significantly, stuff (...) (15 years ago, 19-Nov-09, to lugnet.mediawatch, FTX)
| | | Re: LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
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| (...) While I agree with the morality, the legality is another issue. In essence, though, your point has already been addressed. Thanks to their patent, LEGO enjoyed an exclusive right to production for 20 or so years, allowing them to be the (...) (15 years ago, 19-Nov-09, to lugnet.mediawatch, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
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| (...) Doesn't work that way. Without a core of standard basic elements, the best they'd be able to hope for is a business model similar to what you see with BrickForge/BrickArms/Little Armory etc. If all you can make are elements that enhance the (...) (15 years ago, 18-Nov-09, to lugnet.mediawatch, FTX)
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