Seeking to protect its IP and trademarks, the company has won a US case against Best-Lock Construction Toys.

A US copyright infringement suit has seen the Lego Group win against the British company Best-Lock Construction Toys. WIPR (World Intellectual Property Review) reports that Best-Lock’s figures infringed on the Lego Group’s copyright registrations that were made back in 1994.

In defence, Best-Lock argued that the company had been selling into the USA for years, and the lawsuit had only come about after US Customs and Border Protection seized a shipment of the company’s products – which it did as it perceived them as infringing on the Lego Group’s copyright.

The filing read: “Lego had not previously attempted to stop Best-Lock’s sale of its blocks and figures in the US and had not issued any warning or given Best-Lock any notice that it believed Best-Lock’s minifigures infringed any Lego copyrights.”

It was found that Best-Lock products are ‘indistinguishable’ to the Lego Group’s, with court stating that: “A comparison of the works makes clear that Best-Lock has copied protectable, expressive elements that are original to Lego.”

The court also referred to communication between Best-Lock and the Lego Group outside the USA, which led the former to mistakenly assume they would not be sued within the USA.