Once Again, Lego Learns That It Doesn't Own The Concept Of Interconnecting Blocks
from the welcome-to-the-world-of-competition dept
Back in 2005, we wrote about a Canadian Supreme Court decisions that cleared Montreal company Mega Brands from charges of trademark violations for creating Mega Bloks as a competitor to Lego's well known interconnecting blocks. For years, Lego owned patents on its blocks, but those patents expired and, as has been known to happen, competitors entered the space. Lego, of course, decided that rather than compete on the merits, it would continue to try to avoid market competition through the use of trademark and copyright law. Despite losing in Canada, the company still pushed its trademark claims in Europe -- but a European court has now sided with Mega Brands as well, in noting that no trademark should be allowed on the concept of interconnecting blocks.It's quite likely that Lego will appeal this decision, as the company has quite the reputation for being overly aggressive when it comes to protecting its offerings. However, hopefully the company will realize that actually competing in the marketplace isn't such a bad thing sometimes.
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Filed Under: blocks, eu, lego, mega bloks, toys, trademark
Companies: lego, mega brands
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Competing in the market
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Re: Competing in the market
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L E G O
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Re: L E G O
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FWIW
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Old school?
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Re:
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Legos FTW
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I may have missed something 4 years ago
So if Mega Blocks were around way back then and they even kinda (but not really) interconnected to Legos (it's why they sucked), than why was the suit filed in 2005 and now?
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If someone were to make a mold of the pillsbury dough boy and sale them do you not think that they would be stopped? Are you such a communist that you can't see why duplicating a companies design should be prevented?
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Re:
A trademark isn't a physical object, so I'm not sure where you're coming from here. LEGO blocks were originally patented, but those patents have expired. LEGO is attempting to continue their monopoly be resorting to trademark law.
Wouldn't the very fact that the blocks are interchangeable indicate the MegaBlocks simply made a mold of a LEGO block and duplicated the design?
No, it wouldn't. It would indicate that Mega made a mold that allowed for interchangeable use with LEGO blocks.
If someone were to make a mold of the pillsbury dough boy and sale them do you not think that they would be stopped?
If you had actually bothered to read the article, you would have noticed that the reason the trademark was rejected was because it was attempting to protect a functional design.
Are you such a communist that you can't see why duplicating a companies design should be prevented?
Please to explain how supporting open competition in the free market is a characteristic of communism.
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Re:
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Interchangeability is the key
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Re: Interchangeability is the key
As long as the package the blocks come in states that they're made by Mega, then it doesn't matter that they interconnect with Lego's.
Making the blocks the same size inevitably leads to confusion (passing off)in the market place and allows Mega Blocks to trade on Lego's goodwill.
All the packaging I've seen has the Mega Bloks logo prominently displayed. The only "inevitable confusion" is among those who can't be bothered to look at what they're buying.
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faux trademark
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Re: faux trademark
Faux guffaw at your failed sarcasm aside...
Maybe you should read a little about copyright and trademark law, then visit any of a thousand websites that explain what a patent is. There's quite a bit of difference between a patent and a trademark.
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mega blocks
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mega blocks
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lego
as the founder
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why do they not just make their own bricks ?
but you have to wait 90years after the authur is dead to legaly record yourself singing a song written by someone else?
is it resonable to protect the virtual blocks of tetris,
for about 100 years longer than the physical blocks of lego?
there have newer been any reason they couldnt just make, bricks with square pegs, bumps, or in any other dimensions.
(lego themself was inspired by another brick,
one with holes in the round pegs, and no holes in the sides like lego tecnics)
no they make them so its hard to determine if it is real lego or not! its plain old forgery!
if not every country had a law agains counterfeiting money,
you could argue that after 25years it should be ok to make metal pices with the same weight and dimensions as coins..
its only a design right?
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