EU court rules Lego bricks can be made by rivals
LEIGH PHILLIPS
13.11.2008 @ 09:25 CET
Lego, the Danish maker of toy building blocks, has lost its case before the European Court of First Instance, which has ruled that other companies can produce the popular plastic bricks.
The court ruled on Wednesday (12 November) that the product's shape - the rows of knobs atop the toy and the hollow interior that allow the bricks to interlock and relatively easily be prised apart - could not be trademarked.
Lego intends to appeal to the European Court of Justice (Photo: Powerpig (Flickr))
European Union trademark legislation "precludes registration of any shape" that can "obtain the intended technical result," the court ruled.
Lego had won an EU trademark for its beloved toy in 1999 after its worldwide patent expired in 1988.
Its main rival, the Montreal-based Mega Brands, which produces a similar toy, but with thiner plastic, soon challenged Lego's trademark on its bricks.
In 2004, the EU trademark agency found that the knobs perform a "utilitarian function" and were not "for identification purposes in the trademark sense."
Lego, the largest toy manufacturer in the EU, then appealed the decision before the Court of First Instance, which has now rejected the firm's claim and ordered it to pay court costs.
The company intends to appeal to the European Court of Justice, the 27-country bloc's highest court.
Mega Bloks meanwhile are criticised by fans of the original brick as an inferior product that begins to be too loose to hold together after a while.
A court in Hungary recently banned the sale of Mega Bloks.
