Lego sues Zuru for infringing Trademark, Copyright, Trade Dress, and Patent of its Toy figurines!

Gross violations of intellectual property (IPR) are  commonplace that cause damage to the owner.

On 13th December, toy making company Lego Group accused Zuru, a company that designs, manufactures and markets toys and consumer products, of infringing their Trademark, Copyright, Trade Dress, and Patent.

The suit was filed at the US District Court of Connecticut. According to Lego’s suit, Zuru infringed their Minifigure figurine. These figurines are protected under VA0000655230 and VA0000655104. The copyright registrations cover 3D sculptures. These products also bear the copyright symbol ‘‘©’’ on their packaging.

Lego also owns the Trademarks for their ‘‘Minifigure’’ figurine including 4,903,968 covering the design of the figurines. According to their claim, Zuru started selling figurines which are strikingly and substantially similar to Lego’s toys. The similarity between the toys can confuse average buyers of Lego. They further claimed that these figurines look and feel like the figurines of Lego.

The products were sold on Zuru’s and other third-party websites and even on Walmart. Moreover, they accused Zuru of using a color scheme similar to Lego’s (red, yellow, black and white).

According to the claim, Zuru infringed Lego Group’s trademarks, designs, and copyrights without any authorization. This includes copyrights for their ‘‘Minifigure’’ figurines. Moreover, the defendant also infringed the design patents in relation to their building blocks. These blocks include D701,923S termed as ‘Building Block From A Toy Building Set’.

Another design patent D641,053S covers step-building blocks. Zuru’s Max Build More Building Bricks Value Set (759 Bricks), Max Build More Building Bricks Value Set (253 Bricks) were among the listed products. They also accused Zuru of infringing their ‘‘Friends’’ line of toys.

Lego requested the Court to order injunctive relief against the defendant, preventing them from further selling the products. They also asked for the destruction of all infringed products and actual damages. In addition, they asked for the profits earned by Zuru and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Resources: Latestlaws.com