New Mould Discussion

[SpacePolice89]

10 hours ago, Toastie said:

About what exactly? LEGO going after Kiddicraft? 

I will not complain about Lego stopping the Chinese fake brands with new patents. I think it is great.

5 hours ago, anothergol said:

So those "fake bricks" become real once LEGO has copied them?

"A Briton, Hilary Fisher Page, and his company Kiddicraft has invented the plastic bricks that Ole Kirk and his son Godtfred are presented with. In the late 1950s, the LEGO Group contacts Kiddicraft to ask whether they object to the LEGO® brick. They do not. On the contrary, they wish the company good luck with the bricks, as they have not enjoyed much success with their product. In 1981, the LEGO Group purchases the rights to the Kiddicraft bricks and trademark from the descendants of Hilary Fisher Page."

https://www.lego.com/en-us/history/articles/c-automatic-binding-bricks

54 minutes ago, Mylenium said:

And that means LEGO abusing the copyright system and making invalid claims is okay with you? I for one hope that every company affected by this will sue LEGO for damages and get the registration nixed as quickly as possible...

Mylenium

If the application is accepted is not up to Lego, that is the ruling of the patent office. I don't mind any tactic that will effectively block the Chinese fake brands.

Edited 7 hours ago by SpacePolice89

[anothergol]

36 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

"A Briton, Hilary Fisher Page, and his company Kiddicraft has invented the plastic bricks that Ole Kirk and his son Godtfred are presented with. In the late 1950s, the LEGO Group contacts Kiddicraft to ask whether they object to the LEGO® brick. They do not. On the contrary, they wish the company good luck with the bricks, as they have not enjoyed much success with their product. In 1981, the LEGO Group purchases the rights to the Kiddicraft bricks and trademark from the descendants of Hilary Fisher Page."

funny you mention that (and why? do you acknowledge that LEGO is a "fake brick" too?), the guy in the video talks about it, and says that there's not even any evidence that this (the "good luck") happened, nor any evidence that LEGO did purchase/ever owned the Kiddicraft trademark

I would imagine that if LEGO did own the rights to the Kiddicraft trademark, that german guy would have heard from their lawyers already, and he would have had troubles purchase them in the first place.
So who lies here? I would bet on LEGO. OR LEGO would have really purchased the rights to the trademark in 81, but would have sold them to Fisher Price 8 years later, and there would be no evidence of this, even the family descendants knowing nothing of it?

The trademark was between 1989 and 2003 in the hands of Fisher Price^{[20][21] [22]} Since 2022, the trademark belongs to the YouTuber Thorsten Klahold^[23], and the brand belongs to the German company Dark Side Bricks GmbH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Page

 

Quote

If the application is accepted is not up to Lego, that is the ruling of the patent office

oh the abuse indeed comes from both

36 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I don't mind any tactic that will effectively block the Chinese fake brands.

non-Chinese "fake brands" are ok then? Where's the diff?

Edited 7 hours ago by anothergol

[Mylenium]

50 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

If the application is accepted is not up to Lego, that is the ruling of the patent office. I don't mind any tactic that will effectively block the Chinese fake brands.

It seems you're not really understanding the process. Design protections are filed blindly and are only ever looked at when someone contests them. The system merely automatically registers them under the assumption that it's okay and there is plausible reason. Otherwise you'd need a few thousand examiners looking at designs filed every day to not get backlogged. At this point nobody has decided anything and I sure hope the competing companies and importers will get off their butts and file a motion to delete the registration ASAP. There is apparently enough "prior art" to prove it.

Mylenium

50 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

In 1981, the LEGO Group purchases the rights to the Kiddicraft bricks and trademark from the descendants of Hilary Fisher Page.

That, as they say in North Korea, is capitalist propaganda. *lol*. No, LEGO didn't buy any trademark. It simply lapsed because it wasn't renewed for eons and someone else re-registered it a few years ago. LEGO only ever bought the initial patents back in the 1950s and 1960s and everything that came with them and then "cleaned house" by buying up the remnants of what was left in the 1970s and 1980s, but never made any effort to actually keep the Kiddicraft brand alive.

Mylenium

Edited 7 hours ago by Mylenium

[SpacePolice89]

50 minutes ago, anothergol said:

funny you mention that (and why? do you acknowledge that LEGO is a "fake brick" too?), the guy in the video talks about it, and says that there's not even any evidence that this (the "good luck") happened, nor any evidence that LEGO did purchase/ever owned the Kiddicraft trademark

I would imagine that if LEGO did own the rights to the Kiddicraft trademark, that german guy would have heard from their lawyers already, and he would have had troubles purchase them in the first place.
So who lies here? I would bet on LEGO. OR LEGO would have really purchased the rights to the trademark in 81, but would have sold them to Fisher Price 8 years later, and there would be no evidence of this, even the family descendants knowing nothing of it?

The trademark was between 1989 and 2003 in the hands of Fisher Price^{[20][21] [22]} Since 2022, the trademark belongs to the YouTuber Thorsten Klahold^[23], and the brand belongs to the German company Dark Side Bricks GmbH.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Page

 

oh the abuse indeed comes from both

non-Chinese "fake brands" are ok then? Where's the diff?

YouTube videos from private individuals are not trustworthy sources. Even I could make one and claim something entirely different and people would believe what I say are facts. It is very plausible that Lego has sold the Kiddicraft trademark to someone else and all evidence points in that direction. I believe they were mostly after the patents and bought everything as a  package in 81. All fake brands are bad but the Chinese one are especially bad because of almost non existing workplace regulations and product safety as well as an entire economy that is built on stealing intellectual property from other countries and companies and the country is also a dictatorship.

52 minutes ago, Mylenium said:

It simply lapsed because it wasn't renewed for eons and someone else re-registered it a few years ago.

That is also a very likely explanation.

Edited 6 hours ago by SpacePolice89

[anothergol]

1 hour ago, SpacePolice89 said:

YouTube videos from private individuals are not trustworthy sources. Even I could make one and claim something entirely different and people would believe what I say are facts. It is very plausible that Lego has sold the Kiddicraft trademark to someone else and all evidence points in that direction. I believe they were mostly after the patents and bought everything as a  package in 81. All fake brands are bad but the Chinese one are especially bad because of almost non existing workplace regulations and product safety as well as an entire economy that is built on stealing intellectual property from other countries and companies and the country is also a dictatorship.

Uh, that private individual in the video currently owns the Kiddicraft brand, I would trust him more than LEGO's PR that has already been caught trying to rewrite LEGO's history.

Yeah, it's China's thing to steal IP. But it's also LEGO's thing lol.

And yeah it's a dictatorship, at least we agree on that. So what? Good luck if you wanna live not touching ANYTHING from China lol. 
Do you have a problem with those official LEGO parts produced in China? How do you even recognize them? (I think most the CMF are?)
LEGO has factories all over the world, yeah in China & Vietnam too, like most big companies. And there's a reason their factories in Europe are more produced in cheaper eastern countries than in Denmark. 

2 hours ago, Mylenium said:

That, as they say in North Korea, is capitalist propaganda. *lol*. No, LEGO didn't buy any trademark. It simply lapsed because it wasn't renewed for eons and someone else re-registered it a few years ago. LEGO only ever bought the initial patents back in the 1950s and 1960s and everything that came with them and then "cleaned house" by buying up the remnants of what was left in the 1970s and 1980s, but never made any effort to actually keep the Kiddicraft brand alive.

From what I read, Fisher Price bought the Kiddicraft company in 89, and thus the brand along with it (well, says Wiki). But yeah quite likely that it timed out & the german dude simply re-registered it (I had read otherwise somewhere but can't find it back)

Also the real reason why LEGO bought the design from Kiddicraft is worse, it's because they couldn't attack competitors (Tyco being the first apparently) without fully owning the designs first lol.
So Tyco started producing bricks in 80, LEGO bought the designs in 81, and sued Tyco in 84. 
(that reminds me of Universal vs Nintendo about King Kong that they did not own)

Edited 5 hours ago by anothergol

[SpacePolice89]

2 hours ago, anothergol said:

And yeah it's a dictatorship, at least we agree on that. So what? Good luck if you wanna live not touching ANYTHING from China lol. 
Do you have a problem with those official LEGO parts produced in China? How do you even recognize them? (I think most the CMF are?)
LEGO has factories all over the world, yeah in China & Vietnam too, like most big companies. And there's a reason their factories in Europe are more produced in cheaper eastern countries than in Denmark. 

Most Lego sets sold in Europe are mostly made in Europe (production of pieces mostly in Denmark and Hungary and packaging and printing mostly in the Czech Republic). Only a small amount comes from other regions.

It is of course not possible to completely avoid products made in China but most stuff is avoidable if one puts some effort into it. Electronics and household equipment is easy to find from manufacturers in Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan etc. Varta batteries are made in Germany and Maglite flashlights in the US to name a few examples of other products that otherwise are mostly made in China. Clothing is the category that is the most difficult to find non China/dictator stuff but even there I manage to find products made in India, Portugal, Mexico, South America or the US to name a few places. Lego is actually one of the few toys that are not made in China (if you buy outside the Asia/Pacific region).