Focus
Lego IP
IP

Lego, an example of a winning IP strategy

01. LEGO at a glance
1932
Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter, decided after the economic crisis of the 30s to create miniatures of his furniture, then wooden toys.
LEGO creates its first plastic toys.
1936
1949
LEGO produces its first bricks.
LEGO creates yellow men with an iconic smile.
1978
2014
LEGO was ranked No. 1 in toys sold worldwide and in 2015 "the world's most powerful brand" by Brand Finance.
02. The keys to LEGO's success: innovation
LEGO's success lies in its ability to innovate and in its strategy of protecting its creations, in particular by :
Brands
The history of the LEGO logo
Discover the different LEGO company logos: 16 logos from 1934 to the latest version registered in 1998.
(Scroll to the right to see the logos) →
1930
1936
1939
1946
1950
1952
1953
1953
1954
1955
1955
1958
1960
1965
1973
1998
In 2022, LEGO owned 114 registered trademarks:
51
Trademarks
verbal
Trademarks
verbal
including:
‍" LEGO EDUCATION " (EU trademark n°018110883)
‍" LEGOVILLE " (FR trademark n°1344789)
‍"Thinking with your hands and listening with your eyes" (EU trademark n°006361356)
52
Figurative and semi-figurative trademarks
Figurative and semi-figurative trademarks
of which :
Lego Brand ue
EU mark
n°000106948
Trademark
EU n°000106948
03
Three-dimensional markings
Three-dimensional markings
of which :
Lego Three-dimensional marks
International trademark
n° 1118140
Lego Three-dimensional marks
International trademark
n° 1118141
Designs and Models
As of 2022, LEGO owns 2,267 registered and published designs.
Here is an overview of LEGO's worldwide filings and filing strategy:  
Patents
In 2022, LEGO holds 961 patents.
Here are some examples of LEGO patents:
Lego Patent
Wheel for building set (wo1993008885)
Lego Patent
Toy building system to build and operate a remote-controlled toy vehicle model (wo2021037880)
Lego Patent
Building set (wo1998011968)
03. Overview of LEGO's IP strategy  
Brands
51
The number of invalidity decisions that LEGO obtained in June 2020 against designs registered by a Bulgarian company on characters or accessories infringing LEGO products (decision of June 30, 2020 - EUIPO).

Example:
Previous model
LEGO
Contested model
Designs and Models
Some examples of oppositions filed by LEGO against third party trademarks (2014 - 2022):
Opposition refused by INPI against the trademark LEGOAL n°184452008 for identical and similar goods (OPP 18-3217/SHF 21/01/2019)
Opposition accepted by INPI against the trademark LEGOTEL n°174332218 for identical and similar goods (OPP 17-1547 / REF 21/09/2017)
Opposition refused by the INPI against the trademark VITALEGO n°164321525 for identical and similar goods (OPP 17-0966/DDL 31/08/2017)
Opposition accepted by the INPI against the trademark LEGO CAFÉ n°1186434 for identical and similar products (OPP 14-1211)
04. In conclusion
This fabulous saga, retold in a beautiful exhibition in Paris, confirms once again the interdependence between a company's success and the performance of its intellectual property strategy .
A joint report by the EPO and EUIPO, published on September 25, 2019, shows that over the period 2014-2016, Intellectual Property Rights-intensive industries generated:
EPOEUIPO
29%
of all jobs in the EU, i.e. 63 million jobs over the 2014-2016 period.
45%
of EU GDP per year,
or 6.6 trillion euros.

Is your company thinking about its intellectual property strategy? Let's talk!
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