LEGO Wins Infringement Case Against Clone Bricks Company
The China Shantou Intermediate People’s Court has ruled that Bela Bricks, a China clone bricks company, have infringed upon the copyrights of the LEGO Group.
This is a first time that LEGO has filed AND won a copyright infringement suit in the Peoples Republic of China.
It is a monumental step for the LEGO Group moving forward with regards to other clone bricks companies blatantly copying their products wholesale.
While this is progress against rampant disregard of intellectual property rights in China, these clone brick companies can shut down only to reopen under a different name in a couple of months time.
Not to mention that there a dozen of these clone bricks companies that already exists which means that this is just one battle won in a continuous war against these brick imitators.
Here is the full press release:
The LEGO Group has received a favorable decision from China Shantou Intermediate People’s Court in September holding that certain BELA products infringed upon the copyrights of the LEGO Group and that manufacturing and selling of those products constituted acts of unfair competition. It is the first time the LEGO Group has filed and won an anti-unfair competition case against imitators in China.
The case was filed against two Chinese companies, which had been manufacturing and selling products that were almost identical to LEGO®products. The decisions come into effect in November 2017.
The court decided that the two Chinese companies must stop copying the packaging and logos of LEGO products in the future, as this constitutes copyright infringement. The court also decided that the LEGO Group enjoys protection under Chinese anti-unfair competition laws for the distinctive and unique appearance of certain decorative aspects of its packaging across particular product lines (in this case, LEGO Friends), which serves the purpose of making consumers immediately recognize and associate the products with the LEGO Group.
Peter Thorslund Kjær, Vice President, Legal Affairs in the LEGO Group, said: “We are pleased with the ruling by Shantou Intermediate People’s Court, which we see as a strong indication of the continued focus on proper intellectual property protection and enforcement by the Chinese courts and responsible authorities. We think this is very important for the continued development of a favorable business environment for all companies operating in the Chinese market.”
“We will continue our efforts to ensure that parents and children are able to make informed choices when they are buying toy products, and that they are not misled by attempts by irresponsible companies to make toy products appear as something that they are not.”
The LEGO Group takes the protection of its intellectual property very seriously and takes the necessary steps to ensure that its copyrights, trademarks, patents or intellectual properties are not being violated.
5 responses to “LEGO Wins Infringement Case Against Clone Bricks Company”
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So my question is, will Lego file suit against Lepin and DHL which do the same things that Bela is currently doing? I just find it a little odd that only one of the “clone” companies has had a suit filed against them.
There is a pending suite again Lepin if I’m not mistaken. Not sure about DHL.
Note that this court ruling only contains the blatant ripoff of the designs of the Lego logo, the box art and probably the manual style.
The pieces themselves are not protected, so basically clone manufacturers can still sell the same stuff in different packaging.
Nevertheless, in the past months companies from China have startet to search for (and pay) their own designers and create designs on their own – I hope this trend will continue.
I believe the market is moving in that direction where clone bricks companies are willing to spend that extra to hire actual designers which is a good thing. But it also opens up another aspect of the IP issue when the designer creates something where the intellectual property belongs to another company (ie. Aliens)
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