With the LEGO Star Wars Razor Crest (75292) launch now passed, LEGO now has to contend with it’s own trademark woes with regards to their BrickHeadz trademark, particularly in the United States of America.
There appears that there is a BrickHeadz LLC in Virginia, USA that has been in operation since 2011 and they registered their company a good five years before The LEGO Group even submitted their trademark application. The company specialises in offering STEM-based programs.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) has already rejected TLG’s appeal based on the fact that “Conceptually, these goods and services are all equipped with building toys and therefore appear to be related at first glance,” wrote judge Peter W. Cataldo for a three-person jury. “Consumers would readily expect these goods (LEGO sets) and services (educational service) to be manufactured and marketed by the same sources under the same brands.”
“We find that the brands as a whole are identical or far more similar than dissimilar, and that the goods and services identified are related and travel to the same consumers in common commercial channels,” wrote Judge Cataldo. “We therefore conclude that the applicant’s trademarks are likely to cause confusion.”
I’m not really sure what might happen moving forward as I’m not steeped in copyright law but perhaps we might need to start spelling “BrickHeadz” with an ‘s’ from now on?
(Via spielwaren-investor)
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