A recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada confirms that Lego has no patent protection here as it fights to keep market share. Having had its patent expire, Lego was trying to argue that the shape of the blocks' connecting knobs are distinct and should be treated as a kind of trademark.
But Lego has already been acting like a company that has to outdazzle its competitors, and has been emphasizing tie-ins with Star Wars, Spiderman and other movies in recent years, in an attempt to differentiate itself from Canadian competitor Mega Bloks.
The Montreal-based Mega Bloks is meeting the marketing challenge with tie-ins of its own (including Spiderman). The company says it "has a presence in 14 countries and sales in over a hundred."
Internet and e-commerce lawyer Michael Geist praises the ruling, saying it shows that Canada's top court understands the balance between giving the patent-holder a head start in the market, and a perpetual stranglehold. Says Geist:
"With regard to patents, the court cites with approval language from several years ago that states "patent protection rests on a concept of a bargain between the inventor and the public. In return for disclosure of the invention to the public, the inventor acquires for a limited time the exclusive right to exploit it.
"On the trademark side, the court also notes the limitations to trademark, stating that "trade-marks law is not intended to prevent the competitive use of utilitarian features of products…In Canada, as in several other countries or regions of the world, this doctrine is a well-settled part of the law of trade-marks. In the law of intellectual property, it prevents abuses of monopoly positions in respect of products and processes."
For those who speak Lawyer, here is the actual ruling.
See a Fast Company 2001 article on how Lego has struggled to find its niche, despite having owned the niche for decades (via Boing Boing).
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