Subject:
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Re: Toy companies: Original vs Copycats
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.mediawatch
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Date:
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Thu, 21 Feb 2002 14:43:00 GMT
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Viewed:
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1116 times
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> Last year, Razor won a temporary restraining order against several
> manufacturers of scooters, barring them from selling models that allegedly
> infringed on its patent. And toy industry observers are watching whether
> LEGO Systems Inc. will be successful in its trademark infringement suit
> against Ritvik Holdings Inc., the Montreal-based toy maker of a toy called
> Mega Blocks.
This trademark lawsuit is still going on in some court? The only information
I could easily turn up refers to a 1993 lawsuit in France where the judge
declared Ritvik was not infringing by using a 2x4 brick logo, which I expect
Lego (or KIRKBI in this case) is not conceding.
The salient conclusions by the court were
1) the distinctive shape of a 2x4 brick exists for purely technical reasons,
backed only by long-expired patents, and therefore could not be registered
as a trademark in France (form was "merged" with function)
2) claims to a secondary meaning for the brick were not accepted
3) Ritvik was using different packaging, brick colors etc, and not trying to
compete unfairly by confusing consumers
4) in line with Lego v Tomy, making a compatible product is not per se
unfair competition in France, aside from the question of trademark infringement.
It's also interesting to note that the judge upheld Lego's "industrial
design" of a figure (minifig was still protected by design patent in 1993)
but awarded only small damages as Ritvik had responded by altering the
appearance of their figure.
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Toy companies: Original vs Copycats
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| -from the business wired- (there is a small sound bite about LEGO) Toy companies with original ideas try to keep ahead of copycats. By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO .c The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) - When Manley Toy Quest came out in May 2000 with a $39 (...) (23 years ago, 21-Feb-02, to lugnet.mediawatch)
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