Rival toy building brick makers Lego and Mega Brands are taking their trade mark battle to the US.
Canadian company Mega Brands says that it sued Lego in California on Friday in an effort to invalidate what it described as the Danish company’s 1999 US fiunctional trade mark.
The move follows a decision by US Customs to restrict imports of some of Mega Brands’ own toy brick products. Now the company wants the court to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to ensure that imports of its own products are not affected by Lego’s trade mark.
Two years ago Europe’s highest court ruled against Lego at the end of a 14-year battle by the Danish company to have its building blocks protected as a Community trade mark. In its ruling, the Court said the Lego brick is a sign consisting exclusively of the shape of goods necessary to obtain a technical result.