Brussels, 12/11/2008 (Agence Europe) -On Wednesday 12 November, the Court of First Instance of the European Communities ruled that the image of a "Lego" brick contains certain technical information which must remain available to other companies, and therefore cannot be registered with the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).
In October 1999, the three-dimensional sign of a red "Lego" brick, two buttons wide and four buttons long, was registered as a Community trademark with the OHIM by the company Kirkbi A/S, which later became Lego Juris A/S. However, a Canadian company, Ritvik Holdings Inc (which later became Mega Brands) brought an appeal against the registration of this trademark to the various OHIM appeal bodies. The Canadian company claimed that it had a legitimate need to make bricks in this shape to produce its own construction toys, Mega Bloks. At OHIM, the Cancellation Division, then the First Board of Appeal, and finally the Grand Board of Appeal all ruled in favour of the Canadian company. Specifically, the Grand Board of Appeal of the OHIM invoked article 7(1)(e)(ii) of regulation 40/94 of the Council, which provides that a trademark cannot be registered if it is made up solely of a shape whose essential characteristics perform a technical function. Lego appealed against these decisions to the Court of First Instance, but its appeal was rejected by Wednesday's decision (case T-270/06). The company now has two months to bring an appeal against this decision to the Court of Justice itself, which a spokesperson announced it is likely to do. "Obviously, we are disappointed, and we expect to appeal", said Charlotte Simonsen, quoted by. (C.D./trans.fl)