Lego rebuilds its case for a brick trademark

Published on Tuesday 3 November 2009 20:00

LEGO, maker of the iconic toy brick, yesterday launched a legal bid to win back its trademark.

The company was last year stripped of the right to keep the brick's three-dimensional 2x4 shape as its EU trademark, after a challenge from rival toy maker Mega Brands, which markets Mega Bloks.

The EU's trademark office, OHIM, granted Lego the legal right to the shape in 1999, but then agreed with Mega Bloks' case that a brick was a functional, technical shape which could not be owned by any one company.

Lego has already lost one courtroom battle to win the rights back. Its lawyers returned to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg again yesterday to begin anew.

They claim that Lego brick design contains characteristics that set it apart from others – such as the design and size of the studs on top of the bricks.

The company is challenging the previous decision, that functional shapes, such as a brick, must be excluded from trademark protection.

Otherwise, the court argued, one company would have a monopoly on a basic shape which could be deemed to be "necessary to obtain a technical result".

The Danish toymaker's basic red plastic Lego 2x4 brick was literally the building block for a global toy industry success.