LEGO has dealt a major blow to counterfeiters in China by winning a court case against two companies that produce imitation LEGO products. This is the first case that LEGO has filed and won in China claiming unfair competition, following a ruling last month proclaiming LEGO to be a well known recognized trademark in the region.
The suit was filed against two Chinese companies including the company Bela Bricks that were producing sets nearly identical to those from LEGO’s Friends line as well as other top-selling products. According to the ruling from the China Shantou Intermediate People’s Court, the two companies must stop copying LEGO’s designs, packaging, and instruction books due to copyright infringement.
Peter Thorslund Kjær, Vice President of Legal Affairs at LEGO, said in a press release: “We will continue our efforts to ensure that parents and children are able to make informed choices when they are buying toy products, and that they are not misled by attempts by irresponsible companies to make toy products appear as something that they are not.”
While this is indeed a significant step to halting clone brands from blatantly copying LEGO’s entire product line, many of these Chinese companies will shut down and reopen with a different name to avoid such rulings, making enforcement difficult.
Maybe they should start naming the heads of the companies. Rename it, and quit, and the people you leave behind can start up business again. Don’t, and you, and your bank account, become personally vulnerable to a lawsuit for damages.
Anyways, the real problem appears to be the fact that you have to be a “well-known brand” to even win these lawsuits, and apparently a major step to achieving that requires you to produce your goods in China using Chinese raw materials. Anything less and you get zero legal protection.
The show comic book men recently did a segment on the knockoff market for Chinese reproductions. They did a show and tell on a knock off Robocop action figure. It’s hilarious and unfortunate at the same time but something the Chinese do. I’m sure it’s very hard to control close to 1.4 billion people.
The ninjago line is funny how with each company, they take a letter off. lego/ninjago, lepin/ninjag, bela/ninja. The next one is going to be ninj and that tickles me.