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 16:41:27 GMT
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Viewed:
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12717 times
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In lugnet.mediawatch, David Laswell wrote:
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The LEGO Company did not clone the Kiddiecraft brick.
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From what I recall, LEGO received KiddieCraft bricks in 1947 along with their
first molding machine. The bricks were (if I infer correctly) presented to LEGO
as examples of what can be done with plastic injection molding. LEGO probably
didn’t think much about international copyright or patenting, and simply made a
design similar to the KiddieCraft bricks.
As I recall, they changed the KiddieCraft bricks so that they had a metric
measurement, and I believe they flattened the studs a bit. I’ve never heard
anything about whether they attempted to patent or copyright their take on the
KiddieCraft bricks in Denmark.
They did? I recall reading that Page’s widow revealed that he never knew
anything about the LEGO product, although I could be wrong. I didn’t think LEGO
did anything to communicate with KiddieCraft until the 1980’s.
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then bought the rights to it outright
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Yes, I think they bought the residual rights to KiddieCraft bricks in 1981 or
so, prior to the case with Tyco.
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and then improved upon it with the addition of the tubes inside the bricks
... That version was patented by TLC.
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That was in 1958 that they came up with the stud-and-tube system. Way before the
acquisition of the KiddieCraft rights. And I believe that when they applied for
the patent in Denmark of the stud-and-tube system, they also applied for the
patent in other countries, although I could be mistaken.
Additionally, I recall that they patented a few designs that were similar to the
stud-and-tube that they were NOT planning on releasing (like the X-bottom
connection) so that they could effectively keep more of a monopoly on connecting
plastic building bricks.
DaveE
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: LEGO® Launches Battle Over Trademark
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| (...) The LEGO Company did not clone the Kiddiecraft brick. They licensed the design, then bought the rights to it outright, and then improved upon it with the addition of the tubes inside the bricks that prevent cross-stacked parts from sliding (...) (15 years ago, 17-Nov-09, to lugnet.mediawatch, FTX)
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