Bricks is a question and answer site for LEGO® and building block enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
We have seen (or I have seen, given I am a member of a few popular BIONICLE fan sites) an uproar from custom molding companies -- that is, companies that create their own LEGO pieces.
My question is simply whether these kinds of things are legal, as I know LEGO is very tight with legal issues.
from the german wikipedia entry (translated with my poor english-skills):
so at least in europe there doesn't seem to be a problem in producing custom bricks and exact copies of LEGO-bricks.
LEGO is a multinational corporation. Patents, laws and regulations vary in different countries. Moreover in, many cases, even if there is an operation recognized as illegal, enforcement may be difficult to achieve.
As a result, a proliferation of compatible brands and clones (fake LEGO) do exist. There is also the edge cases of artists selling custom made minifigs parts, etc.
According to the latest jurisprudence
More about this on the wikipedia Megabrand article
As you say, LEGO is very tight with legal issues, so if custom molding was entirely illegal, it's likely we wouldn't see such companies, or maybe in unreachable countries only.
Now, LEGO may be tight with legal issues, but on the other hand they know how to be benevolent when it benefits them. (Consider the openness around the various Mindstorms systems, for example.)
The key here is that LEGO is very protective of its own brand and image, but as long as you don't infringe on that, you're most likely to be OK. In the case of custom molding, it means you can't make any part that LEGO makes or has made itself, and of course you can't pretend it's LEGO at all.
And then you have to hope that LEGO doesn't want to copy you, but even there they can play nice if they feel it's best for them. For an example, take the development of the Emerald Night train. When LEGO started thinking about that, they didn't produce big wheels; but one of the fans who participated in a workshop brought Big Ben Bricks train wheels with him, and by showing LEGO the great models they could build with them, them managed to have LEGO change its position and produce some larger wheels.
Whether LEGO had talks with Big Ben Bricks, or what could have been discussed in these talks, is unknown; but you can notice that Big Ben Bricks still exists eventhough LEGO knows about them. Moreover, LEGO doesn't produce all sizes that BBB does, and even then in limited sets and quantities only (always 4 regulars and 2 blinds together), so that it's likely LEGO tries not to impede too much on BBB.
I a way, I think LEGO is very conscious that these companies fill a gap that they themselves can't, or don't want. As such, as long as these companies play nice, LEGO knows better than to go after them.
(I am not a lawyer)
The key thing now is that the basic brick designs (studs on top and tubes underneath) are no longer covered by patents, which is how mega-blocks et. al managed to survive and create "LEGO Compatible" components - without that, LEGO would have taken them down completely.
What then remains is the copyright and trade marks of the LEGO logo, wording, etc, and indeed the "Basic Brick" in some countries. (Lego Fair Play). How far they go with enforcing that, I'm not sure, and you'd need to talk to the likes of Big Ben Bricks and see if they have any explicit agreements in place.
From the Wikipedia Lego Group article:
The LEGO Group has attempted to trademark the "LEGO Indicia", the studded appearance of the LEGO brick, hoping to stop production of Mega Bloks. On 24 May 2002, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed the case, asserting the design is functional and therefore ineligible for trademark protection [4]. The LEGO Group's appeal was dismissed by the Federal Court of Appeal on 14 July 2003 [5]. In October 2005, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that "Trademark law should not be used to perpetuate monopoly rights enjoyed under now-expired patents." and held that Mega Bloks can continue to manufacture their bricks.
As other posters have mentioned, other companies have limited or dismissed Lego's rights to force out competitors. From my personal observation, Lego has increased its licensing efforts of popular movies (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc.) to improve its competitiveness against Lego clones.
