Subject:
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Re: Lego loses trademark on its plastic bricks
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.mediawatch
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Date:
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Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:21:20 GMT
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18956 times
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More from The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2010
2nd UPDATE: EU Court:Lego Red Brick Trademark Not Registrable
By Mike Gordon Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LUXEMBOURG (Dow Jones)--Danish toy brick maker Lego Juris A/S has failed in its
bid to overturn a European trade mark decision canceling European trade mark
protection for its standard 2 by 4 red Lego brick in a Tuesday ruling of the
European Court of Justice.
"The Lego brick is not registrable as a community trade mark," the court said in
a statement. "It is a sign consisting exclusively of the shape of goods
necessary to obtain a technical result," it added.
The toy brick company had brought the action to overturn a lower court ruling
that upheld a decision by the European trade mark office, called OHIM, to cancel
its 1999 registration of the red brick.
OHIM had taken this step after Lego competitor Mega Brands, maker of Mega Bloks,
requested its cancellation. Mega Brands argued that the trade mark office had
wrongly granted Lego a registration, as it contested that European Trade Mark
law precluded registering such a shape.
Lego appealed to the Court of First Instance, arguing that the law did permit
the registration. The CFI rejected its appeal.
Lego made a further appeal to the European Court of Justice in 2008, arguing
that there were legal errors in the CFI's interpretation of the European trade
mark legislation.
Lego's lawyers argued that the CFI's interpretation would "preclude any shape
which performs a function from trade mark protection." They argued that the
court applied the wrong criteria to identifying essential characteristics of a
three-dimensional trade mark, and applied the wrong test to determine whether
the Lego brick was "functional."
The Court suggested however that Lego's position cannot be defended by
trademarking the red brick, but could be examined as a case of unfair
competition, which was in this case outside its scope.
"We experience that consumers, when they see a studded brick, whether its Lego
or not, expect it to be a Lego brick; so, in order to not confuse and mislead
consumers we feel that we have the right to register a trademark," Charlotte
Simonsen, Lego's Head of corporate communications told Dow Jones Newswires.
"It's about how you can use the shape as a trademark," she added citing
Coca-Cola Co.'s registration of the coke bottle and chocolate manufacturer
Toblerone's trademark of the shape of their chocolate bars.
The ECJ's ruling is in line with a legal opinion issued by Advocate General
Paolo Mengozzi earlier this year, who recommended the court dismiss Lego's
appeal, finding that none of its arguments were founded.
-By Mike Gordon, Dow Jones Newswires; +352 691 180 766;
mgordon.dowjones@gmail.com
(Jens Hansegard in Stockholm and Alessandro Torello in Brussels contributed to
this article.)
Here is the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100914-707120.html
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Lego loses trademark on its plastic bricks
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| From www.businessweek.com website. Sept. 14, 2010 BRUSSELS The European Union's highest court says Danish toy maker Lego cannot claim exclusive right to use its popular plastic bricks as a trademark. The European Court of Justice's ruling allows (...) (14 years ago, 14-Sep-10, to lugnet.mediawatch)
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