LEGO Trademark Rejected by EU Court.

In what may be an interesting side-note to my last post, ToyNews Online recently reported that LEGO's trademark has been rejected by the EU Court of First Instance. Back in 1999 LEGO had registered their bricks for trademark but that has since been successfully challenged by Canadian building-block company Mega Brands. The recent ruling stated that LEGO's brick design was a functional, technical shape that was not any one company's property.

The ruling rejected Lego's claims that its bricks have special characteristics that set them apart and ruled that Lego's two rows of studs on top of the brick performed a utilitarian function and were not for identification purposes in the trademark sense.

Lego had submitted details of consumer surveys showing most people identify the 2 x 4 red brick as the company's brand and that perception had to be taken into consideration when the judges made their ruling.

So what does this mean for LEGO? From my point of view, I doubt that it will have any immediate impact on LEGO's market. LEGO's success should depend on its ability in making unique and creative designs, rather than relying on monopolizing the shape of its bricks. And remember it's just a trademark for the brick (like the one in the picture), not the other components or the mini-figs (which I believe are more iconic).

In the future it's possible that we may see cheaper LEGO brick knockoffs, ones that may be compatible with the original LEGO bricks. I don't see a real problem with that. I think there could be a valuable sub-market of LEGO-compatible parts manufactured by other companies. That could be a huge benefit to the many custom builders in need of large supplies of parts for a reasonable cost. Plus competition will keep the LEGO market from becoming stagnant (or it may already be stagnant for some LEGO fans).

I believe Monopolies breed complacency, lack of creativity, and overpricing. Where would Coke be without Pepsi, or Microsoft without Apple? I think losing this trademark case may encourage LEGO to evolve even further, and as a LEGO fan that's a good thing.

Comments

[trademarks]

I agree with you...this trademark ruling will have almost no impact on Lego's market share, and in fact, it may increase it if they further evolve. But the ruling was absolutely correct: functional aspects cannot be trademarked.