Lego shape trademark is valid, says European court

The EU’s General Court has ruled that Lego’s Community trademark (CTM) covering the shape of its mini figures is valid, despite claims that it has a technical function.

Today, June 16, the court rejected toy company Best-Lock’s opposition against the CTM. Best-Lock had argued the shape was determined by the nature of the goods and that the way the figures connected together created a technical effect.

Best-Lock challenged the validity of the trademark in 2011, but the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market’s (OHIM) Cancellation Division rejected the opposition.

The British-based company then took the case to OHIM’s Fourth Board of Appeal in 2013.

Last year, the board rejected Best-Lock’s arguments. It ruled that EU law does not “preclude goods consisting of shapes” from trademark protection and that toys can be manufactured in many different ways.

Today the court re-affirmed this ruling.

Best-Lock had argued that because the figures move and because the holes under their feet enabled them to be joined with other Lego bricks, their design has a technical function.

But these arguments failed to persuade the court because these were “not among the essential characteristics” of the design and because Best-Lock had “neglected to mention what technical result a toy figure might be supposed to achieve”.

The court added that Best-Lock failed to cite as evidence where OHIM had been wrong in its decision, instead “repeating in its application the arguments submitted during the proceedings before OHIM”.

Peter Kjaer, deputy general counsel at Lego, said: “We are happy that the court has upheld the ruling of the two previous court decisions, and that our European, three-dimensional trademark for the world-known Lego mini figures has been confirmed.”

Best-Lock had not provided a comment at the time of publication, but said it would do in due course.