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A Lego clone is a line or brand of children's construction blocks which is mechanically compatible with Lego brand blocks, but is produced by another manufacturer. The blocks were originally patented by The Lego Group in 1961 as "toy building bricks", [1] and the company has since remained dominant in this market. [2] Some competitors have moved to take advantage of Lego brand recognition by advertising their own products as compatible with Lego, with statements such as "compatible with leading building bricks". [3]
The last underlying patents of the brick design expired in 1978, opening the field to rivals. [4]
At least two of the largest clone manufacturers have been challenged in court by Lego. The lawsuits have been mostly unsuccessful, for courts have generally found the functional design of the basic brick to be a matter of patent rather than trademark law, and all relevant Lego patents have expired.
Although Lego itself originally copied their bricks from British psychologist and inventor Hilary Page in the late 1940s, the company has sued others whom it perceived as producing overly similar products (Lego claims that when contacted by LEGO in the late 1950s, Kiddicraft gave no objection to the Danish company manufacturing the bricks; Lego eventually purchased the rights to the Kiddicraft bricks and trademark from the descendants of Page in 1981 [5] ). [6] [7]
Lego and Tyco Industries fought in US courts over Tyco's line of interlocking bricks in the 1980s with Tyco prevailing. [4] On August 31, 1987, the US District Court ruled that Tyco could continue making Super Blocks, its Lego clone bricks, but ordered Tyco to stop using the Lego trademark and not to state that they were "Lego, but only cheaper". In Lego's Hong Kong suit against Tyco Super Blocks, Lego received an injunction forcing Tyco to stop cloning Lego bricks designed after 1973. Tyco was also being sued at the time by Lego in Austria, Italy and Canada. [8]
In 1990s Lego sued the Canadian company Mega Bloks on the grounds that its use of the "studs and tubes" interlocking brick system was a violation of trademarks held by Lego. On November 17, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Mega Bloks' right to continue selling the product in Canada. [9] A similar decision was reached by the European Union's Court of First Instance on November 12, 2008, upholding an EU regulatory agency's reversal of opinion following an objection by Mega Bloks against a trademark awarded to Lego in 1999. [10] Mega Bloks won a case at the EU's top court in 2010 against Lego's trademark registration of a red toy building brick. On September 14, 2010, the European Court of Justice ruled that the 8-peg design of the original Lego brick "merely performs a technical function [and] cannot be registered as a trademark." [11]
Also in the 1990s, Korean company Oxford was sued by The Lego Group over similar designs, but the case was eventually ruled in Oxford's favor. [12]
In 2000, Lego filed a three-dimensional trademark for its mini-figures, which Best Lock had duplicated since 1998. In 2012, Best Lock sued to get the trademark revoked. On June 16, 2015, European Court of Justice upheld Lego's figure trademark. [13] Lego had in 2009 filed its copyright claims into a U.S. Customs database that led to the seizure of Best-Lock shipments coming in from Asia. In October 2011, Lego filed in US District Court in Hartford filed against Best-Lock over the mini-figure trademark. [6] [14]
The Lego Group did score a success in 2002, when its Swiss subsidiary Interlego AG sued the Tianjin CoCo Toy Co., Ltd. company for copyright infringement. A claims court found many CoCo sets to be infringing; CoCo was ordered to cease manufacture of the infringing sets, publish a formal apology in the Beijing Daily , and pay a small fee in damages to Interlego. On appeal, the Beijing High People's Court upheld the trial court's ruling. [15]
The English company Best-Lock Construction Toys sued Lego in German courts in 2004 [16] and 2009. [17] The German Federal Court denied Lego trademark protection for the shape of its bricks in the latter case. [18]
In 2011, Lego sued Guangdong Jumbo Grand Plastic Moulding Industrial over its BanBao brand's copycat packaging. The two companies settled their case out of court with Guangdong agreeing to create unique packaging and a new figure, ToBees. [19]
In 2016, Lego announced that it would be taking legal action against the Chinese company Guangdong Loongon, which manufactures the brand Lepin, for selling exact replicas of existing Lego products (including box-art). [20]
In 2019, Lego sued Lakeshore Learning Materials for violating its minifigure trademark. [21] [ better source needed ]
In 2020, Lego was successful in blocking Zuru from selling its own version of minifigures, the court finding that Zuru infringed upon Lego's trademark. [22]
The following brands have been described as "Lego clones":
Name | Years active | Manufacturer | Sources |
---|---|---|---|
ATC | 1970s | Asahi Toy Company, from Japan | |
BanBao | 2010–present | Guangdong Jumbo Grand Plastic Moulding Industrial Co., Ltd. | [19] |
Bikku | 2018–present | Keak Japan Co., Ltd. | |
Built to Rule | 2003–2005 | Hasbro | [23] |
Best-Lock | 1997–present | Best-Lock Group | |
CaDA | 2007–present | Double Eagle Toys Industry Co. Ltd. | [24] |
Cobi | 1995–present | Best-Lock Group | [25] |
CoCo | Tianjin COCO Toy Co., Ltd. | [15] | |
JMBricklayer | JMBricklayer | [25] | |
Kre-O | 2011–2017 | Hasbro | [23] [26] |
Lakeshore Learning Company | |||
Laser Pegs | Laser Pegs Ventures | [27] | |
Lepin [20] | Guangdong Loongon | ||
Ligao (立高) | 1999– | Wange Toys Industrial Company | [28] [29] |
Lite Brix | 2013~ | Cra-Z-Art (LaRose Industries) | [27] |
Make-it Blocks | proprietary brand of Dollar Tree | ||
Mega Bloks | 1991–present | Mega Brands (Mattel) | [23] |
Mirabloco | 1980s | CMiranda scholar equipment, from Portugal | |
Mould King | 2012–present | Mould King | [25] |
Nifeliz | 2020–present | Nifeliz | |
N&B Block | 1968-1972 | Nintendo | |
Oxford | 1996~ | Oxford | [12] |
Qman (formerly Enlighten) | 1994–present | Guangdong Qman Industry Toys Co., Ltd. | |
Sluban | 2004–present | Sluban | |
Tyco Super Blocks | 1984–1990 | Tyco Toys/Mattel | [8] |
Wilko Blox | Wilko | ||
Xingbao | 2016 | subsidiary of Lepin, Guangdong Loongon | |
Zuru MAX (Build More) | Zuru |
Lego is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) that accompany an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Its pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Assembled Lego models can be taken apart, and their pieces can be reused to create new constructions.
A generic trademark, also known as a genericized trademark or proprietary eponym, is a trademark or brand name that, because of its popularity or significance, has become the generic term for, or synonymous with, a general class of products or services, usually against the intentions of the trademark's owner.
This article lists notable events and releases in the history of the Lego Group.
Tyco Toys was an American toy manufacturer. It was acquired by Mattel in 1997, becoming one of its brands.
Lego began in 1932 in the carpentry workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish furniture maker. During the Great Depression, he began to make miniature versions of his products, which inspired him to produce toys. In 1934 the company was named "Lego", a contraction from the Danish phrase "leg godt", meaning "play well".
The Lego Group is a Danish construction toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-branded toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks around the world, each known as Legoland, and operates numerous retail stores.
A Lego minifigure, often simply referred to as a Lego figure or a minifig, is a small plastic articulated figurine made of special Lego bricks produced by Danish building toy manufacturer The Lego Group. They were first produced in 1978 and have been a success, with over 4 billion produced worldwide as of 2020. Minifigures are usually found within Lego sets, although they are also sold separately as collectables in blind bags, or can be custom-built in Lego stores and on lego.com. While some are named as specific characters, either licensed from already existing franchises or of Lego's own creation, many are unnamed and are designed simply to fit within a certain theme. They are highly customizable, and parts from different figures can be mixed and matched, resulting in many combinations.
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Kirkbi AG v. Ritvik Holdings Inc., popularly known as the Lego Case, is a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. The Court upheld the constitutionality of section 7(b) of the Trade-marks Act which prohibits the use of confusing marks, as well, on a second issue it was held that the doctrine of functionality applied to unregistered trade-marks.
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Mega Brands Inc. is a Canadian children's toy company that is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Mattel. Mega Bloks, a line of construction set toys, is its most popular product. Its other brands include Mega Construx, Mega Puzzles, and Board Dudes. The company distributes a wide range of construction toys, puzzles, and craft-based products.
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Interlego AG v Tyco Industries Inc was a case in copyright law that originated in Hong Kong that eventually went before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom.
Best-Lock Construction Toys is a brand of plastic building bricks that are compatible with Lego. Best-Lock Group Limited, which manufacture the bricks, is based in Colne, Lancashire, England.
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Hilary "Harry" Fisher Page was an English toy maker and inventor of Self-Locking Building Bricks, the predecessor of Lego bricks. He founded the Kiddicraft toy company.
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