The end of Lego monopoly

[The Cobra]

Yesterday afternoon, most Italian press agencies spread the news around:

"(ANSA) - ROMA, 16 MAR - La Cassazione ha tolto il monopolio nella produzione e commercializzazione dei mattoncini 'Lego' per giochi componibili all'omonima societa'. Con la sentenza 5437 la Suprema Corte ha totalmente ribaltato il verdetto con il quale la Corte di Appello di Milano - nel 2003 - aveva vietato alla societa' canadese 'Mega Block' di produrre e vendere i mattoncini giudicandola un'operazione di concorrenza sleale. Per Piazza Cavour, invece, il mercato non si deve 'ingessare'. "

La Corte di Cassazione is the third and final judgement grade. They sentenced (opposing to what Corte D'Appello - the second grade- said) that Mega Block has the right to make bricks that fit Lego ones.

You can easily check the news googling "Lego Monopolio".

Still, I wonder how came a Danish company and a Canadian company had to settle it out in Italy...

Edited March 17, 2008 by The Cobra

[AFOL SF]

Yesterday afternoon, most Italian press agencies spread the news around:

"(ANSA) - ROMA, 16 MAR - La Cassazione ha tolto il monopolio nella produzione e commercializzazione dei mattoncini 'Lego' per giochi componibili all'omonima societa'. Con la sentenza 5437 la Suprema Corte ha totalmente ribaltato il verdetto con il quale la Corte di Appello di Milano - nel 2003 - aveva vietato alla societa' canadese 'Mega Block' di produrre e vendere i mattoncini giudicandola un'operazione di concorrenza sleale. Per Piazza Cavour, invece, il mercato non si deve 'ingessare'. "

La Corte di Cassazione is the third and final judgement grade. They sentenced (opposing to what Corte D'Appello - the second grade- said) that Mega Block has the right to make bricks that fit Lego ones.

You can easily check the news googling "Lego Monopolio".

Still, I wonder how came a Danish company and a Canadian company had to settle it out in Italy...

Can someone please translate in 'english?' Thanks in advance!

[hewkii9]

No, they don't. Actually, I like their methodology. I think I'll go around and make dupe accounts that mimic others- who knows, maybe GregF'll come here. I'll make my posts fit his personality. Or maybe we'll see some Outpost Gallifrey moderators, or xwingyoda's long lost brother, .xwingyoda. My posts will fit their personalities, so it's okay. Complete interlocking. Never know the difference until someone smart intervenes and stops it.

Now replace 'dupe accounts' with 'clone bricks' and any member name like 'GregF' or 'Outpost Gallifrey Moderators' with a Lego theme name, like 'Exo-Force', or 'Castle'.

[Zarkan]

No, they don't. Actually, I like their methodology. I think I'll go around and make dupe accounts that mimic others- who knows, maybe GregF'll come here. I'll make my posts fit his personality. Or maybe we'll see some Outpost Gallifrey moderators, or xwingyoda's long lost brother, .xwingyoda. My posts will fit their personalities, so it's okay. Complete interlocking. Never know the difference until someone smart intervenes and stops it.

Now replace 'dupe accounts' with 'clone bricks' and any member name like 'GregF' or 'Outpost Gallifrey Moderators' with a Lego theme name, like 'Exo-Force', or 'Castle'.

I get your point, but making a toy line similar to another toy line is different than blatantly pretending that your are someone else. Megabloks has been doing their own thing for a while, instead of directly copying desgins like Shifty and other pirates have done. Sure, you can say that Neo Shifters is a rip off of Bionicle and Dragons is a rip off of Castle, but you can't really compare the styles, aside from the fact that they both have studs.

Besides, technically they DO have the right, since TLC FAILED to renew the patnent on the lego brick. Don't blame megabloks and other clone brands for taking advantage of the opportunity. It's called the free market. ;-)

Oh, and BTW, someone already did TRY to impersonate GregF on this forum. He's forever chambered, as his title says. X-D

Edited March 17, 2008 by Grevious

[mutley777]

I have never bought a megablocks set nor will i ever so no problem here :-) . I would not even buy one for someone for a present :-D . Even if i did not like them (i would just get them bionicle :-D )!

[blueandwhite]

Well, this is nothing new.

Given that LEGO's patents have expired, I'm not really sure what they could do to prevent clones from producing similar building bricks. From what I remember of the Canadian Supreme Court case (covered it in Law school), the court held that the LEGO brick was not subject to copyright. It's very rare for courts in different jurrisdictions to contradict each other on matters of copyright law as most developed countries have signed onto the Byrne Convention (which governs copyright law). This lawsuit by LEGO simply seems to be a runaround of the previous one that they lost the last time. As I can't read Italian, I'm not sure the details of this lawsuit but I would love to hear about it.

Perhaps LEGO was claiming that MEGABLOKS were passing themselves off as being LEGO brand bricks? Any details from our Italian members would be greatly appreciated as this stuff is always good for discussion.

At the end of the day, it hardly matters to us as AFOLs. MEGABLOKS have been around for years and they haven't hurt us in the least. As far as I'm concerned, LEGO quality will always prevail :-D .

[astoriabluelegos]

Lego's proceses are so precise, and so secret, that I don't think ANY of the clone brands come EVEN close. I have NEVER heard of a Mega Blocks fan, and the only people I ever see buying them is gullible young children who don't KNOW any better, not to mention Mega Blocks are ALWAYS on clearance because they DON'T SELL at normal market value very much, especially compared to Lego. So considering all this they should eventually just die, and then problem solved... ;-)

[The Cobra]

OT: I read about an Italian AFOL's son being presented with lots of Lego and some other bricks. "Dad, this isn't REAL Lego, is it?" >:-)

Back to business: national newspaper Il Giorno writes a few more words: link. It's hard to translate from Judgish, but here's a try.

Back in 2003, the judgement was that "Since any manufacturer spends money on how to make their product differ from other modular buldings, what MB is doing is disloyal/unfair. Every brand have their own products and should not relate them to other brand's".

Now to 2007 sentence. It is 1) Final. Definitive. (I don't know about EC Court). 2) Only to have effect in Italy (but it easily could create a precedent).

"For the good of market, competition and final users, it would be unfair to compete by offering exclusives, while it is better to let the buyers make a combined use of different brands".

Therefore:

can other brands clone Lego sets? No.

can other brands clone Lego bricks? Yes.

[blueandwhite]

OT: I read about an Italian AFOL's son being presented with lots of Lego and some other bricks. "Dad, this isn't REAL Lego, is it?" >:-)

Back to business: national newspaper Il Giorno writes a few more words: link. It's hard to translate from Judgish, but here's a try.

Back in 2003, the judgement was that "Since any manufacturer spends money on how to make their product differ from other modular buldings, what MB is doing is disloyal/unfair. Every brand have their own products and should not relate them to other brand's".

Now to 2007 sentence. It is 1) Final. Definitive. (I don't know about EC Court). 2) Only to have effect in Italy (but it easily could create a precedent).

"For the good of market, competition and final users, it would be unfair to compete by offering exclusives, while it is better to let the buyers make a combined use of different brands".

Therefore:

can other brands clone Lego sets? No.

can other brands clone Lego bricks? Yes.

I'm not surprised. This judgement sounds pretty similar to the 2005 judgement. The fact that LEGO couldn't get a trademark on the studded building brick sort of put the nail in the coffin on this one. Honestly, the idea that a company should be able to create a permanent monopoly is absurd. Patents give the inventing company twenty good years to build a reputation (and LEGO has a rock-steady one at that), so I'm not really that put off by this latest decision.

From what I'm reading here, LEGO having failed to secure a trademark for their bricks in 2005 has now attempted to make an argument for "passing off". Unfortunately, I'm not sure that there is a court out there that would support such a claim. As a LEGO fan I feel bad for my favourite company, but could you imagine if every company could create an indefinite monopoly on anything they invented? Yikes! I like my LEGO, but I like a free fair market just a bit more.

I wonder if we'll see LEGO attempt to find another way to attempt to curb the surge of clone bricks in the future?