LEGO Minifigure Prevails Against Best-Lock in EU Court Ruling

[Hapori Tohu]

A European Union general court recently ruled in favor of the LEGO Group in a case determining whether the classic minifigure shape is a protected shape, reports BBC News. The shape of the LEGO minifigure has been registered as a trademark since 2000, but Best-Lock, a competing building toy brand based in England, challenged this on the grounds that the design was an integral part of their compatibility with interlocking building block sets. The court did not agree with these conclusions, and upheld the LEGO Group's right to trademark the iconic minifigure design - a major victory in the LEGO Group's ongoing struggle to protect their brand from imitators!

 

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[Bricko Botface]

Yes! Put them in their place!

[Toa Smoke Monster]

Congrats to the Lego Group on this. 

[Rooster Nui]

That's great stuff. The LEGO Group designed and produced minifigures as an original concept, so it's only fair they can keep it as their own thing.

[Prowl Nightwolf]

Ok when I read the topic title on the News Forum I could have sworn it basically said a Mini-figure won a case against some company in EU. I thought that was strange but I clicked on the link anyway to find this. So was this company trying to copy the mini-figure concept exactly or did they do it and TLG is now on a rampage for it? Because MegaBlox has their own mini-figure design as seen with their Halo sets. So how far is Lego taking this? I all for putting knockoffs in their place but what exactly is the case about?

 

From what I read it seemed like the rival company(Yeah right like any company can truly rival Lego) wants the right to use similar parts in their own mini-figures because otherwise it wouldn't work with their building system? I mean Mega Blox has done it so why can't this company? Seems like they just want to take Lego's hard work in designing a comprehensive character for their system sets ad pass it off as their own. Reminds me of what Dr. Malcom said in the first Jurassic Park. "It didn't take any discipline to achieve. You took what somebody else did and took it a step forward." Or something to that extent.

[Aanchir]

Ok when I read the topic title on the News Forum I could have sworn it basically said a Mini-figure won a case against some company in EU. I thought that was strange but I clicked on the link anyway to find this. So was this company trying to copy the mini-figure concept exactly or did they do it and TLG is now on a rampage for it? Because MegaBlox has their own mini-figure design as seen with their Halo sets. So how far is Lego taking this? I all for putting knockoffs in their place but what exactly is the case about?

 

From what I read it seemed like the rival company(Yeah right like any company can truly rival Lego) wants the right to use similar parts in their own mini-figures because otherwise it wouldn't work with their building system? I mean Mega Blox has done it so why can't this company? Seems like they just want to take Lego's hard work in designing a comprehensive character for their system sets ad pass it off as their own. Reminds me of what Dr. Malcom said in the first Jurassic Park. "It didn't take any discipline to achieve. You took what somebody else did and took it a step forward." Or something to that extent.

The LEGO Group was not the plaintiff in this case, but rather the defendant. The LEGO Group has had a trademark on their minifigure design since 2000, and Best-Lock was challenging it in court in hopes of getting it revoked — presumably because they were afraid the LEGO Group might accuse them of trademark violations for their own minifigures, which are clear imitations of the LEGO minifigure's shape (with only slight changes like molded noses).

 

The trademark in question doesn't affect other companies' original figure designs, just figures that deliberately mimic the shape of the LEGO minifigure in hopes of profiting from the LEGO Minifigure's figure's popularity. A toy figure doesn't need to be the same shape as the minifigure in order to be compatible with toy building bricks — Mega Bloks' Halo figures and Ionix's Tenkai Knights figures are two examples of figures for LEGO-like building toys that have scarcely anything in common with the LEGO minifigure except their size.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Aanchir

[Prowl Nightwolf]

Ah ok, so that makes a little more sense. Thank you also for posting a clear picture of both the original and knockoff. I would have to say yes I think the Judge was right in his ruling. As long as the copyright is still in effect. I hear they can be lost as has happened in the Transformers franchise. Also could be why we have other forms of building bricks such as Mega Bloks, Better Blocks, and whatever this English company is. Also why many are called Lego bricks even though they are not actually made by lego. Lego copyrighted their design and that is the end of it. I mean of the company want to make mini-figures who are built with a leg piece a body piece and a head piece then great. But when them pieces look like they came out of an actual Lego mold... yeah they crossed a line and trying to get a judge to rule for their mistake is really grasping at straws.