Note about trademark law: Trademarks don't expire; they can really only be ruled abandoned or unenforceable. It was an interesting and perhaps unorthodox use of

Note about trademark law: Trademarks don't expire; they can really only be ruled abandoned or unenforceable. It was an interesting and perhaps unorthodox use of trademark in the first place, and the kind of thing you would normally file a design patent for – though of course, Lego has been around far longer than any country's patents last (thus the existence of Mega Bloks).