July 10, 2015

Inside Scoop of the AIPPI World Congress – LEGO Figurines Trademarked – Important Change of the Canadian Copyright Law – IP Fridays – Episode 32

32 minutes

Today we will get the full inside scoop of the upcoming AIPPI World Congress by Laurent Thibon, Sarah Matheson, and Luiz Henrique O. do Amaral. LEGO sucessfully defended their Community Trademark for their LEGO figurines. And there is an important change of the Canadian Copyright Law.

IP FRIDAYS

Co-Presenters:

Rolf Claessen and Kenneth Suzan

Episode 32 – July 10, 2015

RC = Rolf Claessen

KS = Kenneth Suzan

LT = Laurent Thibon

SM = Sarah Matheson

LHA = Luiz Henrique do Amaral

Hello. I am Laurent Thibon. I am a French and Europe patent attorney working at the Cabinet Beaumont firm in France and I am also Secretary General of AIPPI and you are listening to IP Fridays.

KS: Hello and welcome to this episode of IP Fridays. Our names are Ken Suzan and Rolf Claessen and this is THE podcast dedicated to Intellectual Property. It does not matter where you are from, in-house or private practice, novice or expert, we will help you stay up-to-date with current topics in the fields of trademarks, patents, design and copyright, discover useful tools and much more.

RC: Welcome to Episode 32 of IP Fridays. We are just over one year old and we already have over 23,000 MP3 downloads of our episodes so thank you dear listener for tuning in and obviously recommending this show to your friends. Thank you very much.

What’s coming up today? We have the full inside scoop of this year’s upcoming AIPPI World Congress in Rio de Janeiro. I had the chance to interview Secretary General Laurent Thibon, as well as Reporter General Sarah Matheson from Australia and Luiz Henrique do Amaral who is currently the Assistant Secretary General but also the Chairperson of the conference. But before we jump into the full discussion about the AIPPI World Congress, Ken has discovered two really interesting pieces of information. He will talk about an important decision with regard to Lego bricks and a really important change in Canadian Copyright Law. So, Ken, what did you find out about the Lego bricks?

KS: Rolf, Lego bricks have been around for ages, and you may remember owning them while growing up. Recently, the Danish toy giant’s Community Trademark for the three-dimensional shape consisting of yellow Lego male and female figures was under attack. Best Lock, a British competitor that manufactures similar figures, had contested the three-dimensional shape registration for the Lego figurines on the grounds that the shapes were part of a toy that is part of “interlocking building blocks for play purposes”. Lego had registered this shape trademark in the year 2000. The specific grounds for opposition included: (1) consisting exclusively of the shape which results from the nature of the goods themselves, and (2) consisting exclusively of the shape of goods necessary to obtain a specific technical result. The General Court of the European Union disagreed and held in favor of Lego. The Court ruled that the shape of the Lego figurines which includes their feet and legs containing holes, did not serve a “technical function”. The Court’s ruling contains drawings of a Lego figurine’s full body complete with the smiley head. As such, Lego’s 3-D shape registration for their figurines stands in full force and effect in the European Union.

This ruling comes at a time when Lego in the European Union had suffered a setback in 2010, when Lego competitor Mega Bloks, challenged a Lego trademark for a red brick building and won. Other companies that have trademarked the shape of their products are Atlanta-based giant, Coca-Cola. Their bottle has a unique three-dimensional shape that is protected by trademark law.

RC: Thank you Ken. As I have three little kids,

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By Rolf Claessen and Ken Suzan

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