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The LEGO patent ran out a few years ago, anyone could make these. But they didn't, plus it has taken decades for this Braille teaching aid to come along. I sus

The LEGO patent ran out a few years ago, anyone could make these. But they didn't, plus it has taken decades for this Braille teaching aid to come along. I suspect this will sell well to adults who have fond memories of playing with LEGO and have got bored of fridge magnets.

bluGill 7y ago
They aren't planning to sell it. I wouldn't be surprised if it did sell well if their tried.
jacquesm 7y ago
The LEGO patent was about as illegal a patent as there ever was, especially given that LEGO stole the original design of the bricks.
- em-bee 7y ago
  got any reference to that claim? the patent for the material too? i think the problem with earlier clones was not the shape but the quality of the plastic
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    The plastic was orginally cellulose based plastic which did not keep its shape very well over time and also tended to become more and more transparent. As for the bricks themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Fisher_Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Fisher_Page As much as I'm a fan of LEGO that was a pretty dirty trick they pulled and the whitewash attempt later on even dirtier. More here: http://www.hilarypagetoys.com/Home/History/26/0 http://www.hilarypagetoys.com/Home/History/26/0
    - em-bee 7y ago
      thanks. that doesn't really make patents illegal, because there should be significant differences. and significant improvements on existing things are themselves patentable. but i agree with you that whitewashing history is dirty. although, i do remember in a 5 minute video about lego history which i believe was made by lego, it was acknowledged that they got the brick idea from a fair that demoed injection molding machines. as for suing their competition, i do hope they don't succeed. lego is pretty big in china too, but clones are rampant, and their brick quality is getting hard to distinguish from lego. there are of course those that directly copy lego original models. but they also design their own. the latter should be allowed.
em-bee 7y ago
the lego brand is still very strong, and moulds are not cheap, so this is not something, someone would think up and execute quickly. only in recent years we see more product ideas of this kind, so i can't really imagine that it would have come up earlier.

bluGill 7y ago

They aren't planning to sell it. I wouldn't be surprised if it did sell well if their tried.

jacquesm 7y ago

The LEGO patent was about as illegal a patent as there ever was, especially given that LEGO stole the original design of the bricks.

em-bee 7y ago
got any reference to that claim? the patent for the material too? i think the problem with earlier clones was not the shape but the quality of the plastic
- jacquesm 7y ago
  The plastic was orginally cellulose based plastic which did not keep its shape very well over time and also tended to become more and more transparent. As for the bricks themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Fisher_Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Fisher_Page As much as I'm a fan of LEGO that was a pretty dirty trick they pulled and the whitewash attempt later on even dirtier. More here: http://www.hilarypagetoys.com/Home/History/26/0 http://www.hilarypagetoys.com/Home/History/26/0
  - em-bee 7y ago
    thanks. that doesn't really make patents illegal, because there should be significant differences. and significant improvements on existing things are themselves patentable. but i agree with you that whitewashing history is dirty. although, i do remember in a 5 minute video about lego history which i believe was made by lego, it was acknowledged that they got the brick idea from a fair that demoed injection molding machines. as for suing their competition, i do hope they don't succeed. lego is pretty big in china too, but clones are rampant, and their brick quality is getting hard to distinguish from lego. there are of course those that directly copy lego original models. but they also design their own. the latter should be allowed.

em-bee 7y ago

the lego brand is still very strong, and moulds are not cheap, so this is not something, someone would think up and execute quickly. only in recent years we see more product ideas of this kind, so i can't really imagine that it would have come up earlier.