Hi!

Den folgenden Text findet Ihr auf der Lego-Homepage unter den englischen Pressemitteilungen, unter den deutschen Mitteilungen ist der Text leider mal wieder nicht dabei.

Hier der direkte Link.

Der Text:

July 30 2004

LEGO Company appeals legal decision

The Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market in Alicante, Spain (OHIM) has rendered a first instance decision declaring the registration of the shape of the LEGO ® eight-knob brick invalid upon a request filed by Mega Bloks, Inc., a Canadian company which also manufactures construction toy elements, and in particular construction toy bricks that have an identical appearance to the well-known LEGO bricks. The decision is not final as an appeal can – and will – be filed with the Boards of Appeal of the OHIM.

The LEGO Company filed its application for the registration of the three-dimensional trade mark consisting of the shape of its well-known LEGO brick as early as April 1996. The mark was recognised as being distinctive of the LEGO Company and registered in October 1999. Shortly after that, Mega Bloks requested that the registration be declared invalid. It alleged that the shape for which the trademark protection had been granted was necessary to achieve the specific function of a construction toy brick, and that it was incapable of being recognised by consumers as an indicator of its commercial origin, but would rather be seen as a toy brick.

“During the proceedings we were able to show that the shape in question is very widely recognised as being the that of a LEGO brick, in other words, that consumers clearly associate the commercial source of such a brick immediately with the company that makes it, says Poul Hartvig Nielsen, Head of Legal Affairs of the LEGO Company. “We have also proven that there is no technical need to use precisely that shape in order to produce a toy brick that would interconnect with another in the way the LEGO bricks do, but that there are plenty of different possibilities to make interconnecting toy bricks without using the distinctive shape of the LEGO brick. Nevertheless, on this last point the first instance cancellation division followed the argument that the existence of alternative shapes was irrelevant, that the shape was functional and that it could not therefore be granted trademark protection”.


For further information, please contact:
LEGO Company
Charlotte Simonsen
Director, Press Relations
Corporate Communications
Telephone: (+45) 79 50 65 79



Gruß,

CarWag
For further information, please contact:
www.legomausoleum.de ;)

Re: [B]TLC: Pressemeldung bzgl. MegaBloks vom 30.Juni '04, leider nur englisch[/link] von CarWag am 07. August 2004 18:11:37:


D.h. also, man kann auch mit nicht-8ern bauen, aber gerade deshalb darf man diesen Allerweltsstein als Logo schützen lassen?!

Re: [B]Re: TLC: Pressemeldung bzgl. MegaBloks vom 30.Juni '04, leider nur englisch[/link] von coyote am 07. August 2004 22:12:06:


Nöp, eher andersrum. Lego hat den Achter nicht geschützt gekriegt, weil auch andere Achter machen.
Aber das wird sich noch Jahrzehnte hinziehen. Ist wie mit "Original Budweiser".

Tschö

K