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The District Court of Düsseldorf heard a case about Lego minifigures produced by other terminal block manufacturers. The Danish brand is suing Paderborn-based Stone Made GmbH, which sells prefabricated kits from alternative manufacturers.

Representatives of Lego came to this company through the blogger Thorsten Clahold, who runs the Johnny’s World channel on the popular YouTube video hosting. Initially, in his video reviews, he advertised the products of the Chinese Lepin, the designers of which were later recognized as plagiarism. legoand the company is closed. Then the blogger began to present sets from other manufacturers of alternative clamping blocks, such as, for example, Cobi and Qman.

The specialists of the Danish company, before filing a lawsuit, stocked up with irrefutable evidence of violations. To do this, they made anonymous purchases, during which they purchased 3 sets with minifigures. According to Lego, it is the miniature figurines of other manufacturers that infringe their trademark rights. The Plaintiff demanded that the Defendant refuse to introduce, sell and use the relevant minifigures.

In addition, it is necessary to destroy all minifigures from existing sets and reveal the names of their manufacturers, suppliers and buyers, give information on the prices of these products and compensate for the damage caused to the Danish company by illegal sales.

Lego’s claim was fully satisfied. The decision of the District Court of Düsseldorf noted that the minifigures from alternative manufacturers are indeed «very similar to branded LEGO minifigures from the point of view of average consumers, so there is an immediate risk of confusion.» This decision can be appealed to the Düsseldorf Supreme Court. However, it is unlikely that the verdict issued by the first court instance will be changed.