An interesting article on the BBC news site about brands suffering because they have become associated in the minds of consumers with all goods of that type, e.g. Aspirin, Escalator, Thermos, Hoover and Kleenex: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27026704 Is the same thing happening to LEGO? With all the clone brands and counterfeits, does the general public think of LEGO as a class of toy building bricks? Do people (not AFOLs of course) say "Lego" when talking about other companies' products? My non-AFOL sister-in-law refers to Megabloks as "Lego" which makes my skin crawl.