4 ms·

The story about "Held der Steine" looked to me like an attorney going too far. Stupid move, stupid shitstorm ensues. The design of the classical Lego minifigure

by bhaak 7y ago

The story about "Held der Steine" looked to me like an attorney going too far. Stupid move, stupid shitstorm ensues. The design of the classical Lego minifigure OTOH is protected. It's completely legal and understandable to go after copies of that. But with "Bluebrixx", I'm not so sure if this is all. There might be more about that. Look for example at this page: https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/bluebrixxspecials/scifi https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/bluebrixxspecials/scifi This looks very much like something fishy going on. They call them "Bluebrixx-Specials" but they are clearly not original designs. What does a "classical ambulance" do in a category called "SF"? It looks eerily similar to Ecto-1, that's why. I also suppose they don't have the license to do classical Battlestar Galactica models. They should be very careful about such things.

martin_a 7y ago
> This looks very much like something fishy going on. They call them "Bluebrixx-Specials" but they are clearly not original designs. I'm with you on that, but can you really protect designs like these? Obviously they are trying hard to sail around paying licensing fees which I can understand and don't really see a problem with. Paying those licensing fees is mainly for marketing reasons and if you want to keep marketing costs low I see no problem in selling a "classical ambulance" instead of "Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters".
- bhaak 7y ago
  Trademark law is lot more fuzzy than copyright law. Whereas copyright comes into existence just by creating something, trademarks are only granted after official registering. And then they can still be challenged. But with the Ecto-1-look-alike, this is still very clear to me. That's not how a NY classical ambulance looks, that's how a classical ambulance looks after being modified by the Ghostbusters. That's a significant point. Given that this is even a licensed model, I'm surprised that it isn't part of the provisional injunction.

by bhaak 7y ago

martin_a 7y ago

> This looks very much like something fishy going on. They call them "Bluebrixx-Specials" but they are clearly not original designs. I'm with you on that, but can you really protect designs like these? Obviously they are trying hard to sail around paying licensing fees which I can understand and don't really see a problem with. Paying those licensing fees is mainly for marketing reasons and if you want to keep marketing costs low I see no problem in selling a "classical ambulance" instead of "Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters".

bhaak 7y ago
Trademark law is lot more fuzzy than copyright law. Whereas copyright comes into existence just by creating something, trademarks are only granted after official registering. And then they can still be challenged. But with the Ecto-1-look-alike, this is still very clear to me. That's not how a NY classical ambulance looks, that's how a classical ambulance looks after being modified by the Ghostbusters. That's a significant point. Given that this is even a licensed model, I'm surprised that it isn't part of the provisional injunction.