IMAGES OF LEGO'S PATENTS

[The Real Indiana Jones]

We were discussing Lego's patent issues on a different forum, so I wanted to share this link...

The original patents expired decades ago, but they are always putting in newer patents on new designs for new bricks. If you go to the European Patent Office (EPO) website and search for patents with "lego" as the applicant, you can see them all, going back to 1976 or so. Here is the link for you.

http://worldwide.espacenet.com/searchResults?PA=lego&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP&ST=advanced&compact=false

For each patent, you can also click on the links under "also published as" to see additional images...

And note that if the US patent number starts with the letter "D", then it is just a design patent, which simply covers the visual design of a product. A "design patent" is much easier for a competitor to work around than a full "utility patent" for an invention. Wikipedia has more background info.

If you see anything fascinating in the new patent images, you might also start a new thread...! =)

[Hiawatha]

Thanks for sharing these! I'll always leave it to Indiana Jones to find the historcial documents of Lego!