5 ms·
Ugh Lego and trademarks. My wife and I had Lego threaten to sue us for trying to import "legos" of mass destruction, it seems. We ordered a lego-compatible kit,
by retSava 5y ago
Ugh Lego and trademarks. My wife and I had Lego threaten to sue us for trying to import "legos" of mass destruction, it seems. We ordered a lego-compatible kit, which is ok I think, since it's only the lego figure that is patented Lego, the logo and name of course trademarked to Lego, and any brand cooperation to respective rights holders (eg Star Wars).
However, a kit without Lego names or logos, and without Lego-figures, and without any branding or copy of existing Lego-kit, should be ok.
But no. In some way, our customs withheld the package and we had lawyers for Lego threaten to sue us if we claimed rights to the package. They attached the Lego figure patent with the threat. We said, burn it, forget it, and acknowledge that we can sleep at night again please, but they forgot the last part.
It was a kit worth about 10€, and we have hundreds of €'s of Lego. Now we've stopped buying Lego. Also, less plastic crap.
Not to sound bitter, but the big friggin majority of kids toys industry is shit and the world would be a better place without it. Sorry for the steam :S.
- em-bee 5y agothe patent for the lego figure is expired too. they still have a 3d design mark on the figure which bluebrixx is working now to overturn. you tried to privately import a single box? i can understand lego going against commercial importers, but private shipments of individuals who don't have any resources to defend themselves, that's just ridiculous. However, a kit without Lego names or logos, and without Lego-figures, and without any branding or copy of existing Lego-kit, should be ok. and they are. but you have to make the effort to defend yourself against the accusations, which a commercial importer can do, but it's totally unfair to put that on individuals for a single set. which set exactly did you try to import? there are a few large importers in germany, you may consider those. avoids the hassle...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 5y agoYou're right to be bitter, especially so because Lego has a pretty sordid history in this respect, the only reason they exist is because the founder copied someone else's IP and made a bundle of money on it. At the root of every great fortune there is a great crime. Oh, and the original inventor committed suicide. Those little details.
- drra 5y agoBricklink, now Lego's property, also has checkered past. Fits the family.
- drra 5y agoThey send bulk of these threats for any package that customs mark as "probably fake Lego". Depending on a country, if you refuse to get the product incinerated you'd have to pay storage fees for the time it takes to get an expert to assess the claim. Lego is doing great job in making sure custom officers have as little knowledge of the real situation as possible. And to add to Lego's sis each set includes unnecessary unique bricks so that you can't remake a set without buying these custom parts. There are tens of thousands unique bricks so far and this trend is going strong.
- em-bee 5y agoand as soon as you start paying those fees the price advantage of personally importing alternative brands is lost. making importing only worth the risk for a set that you really want because lego doesn't have anything comparable.