Ask HN: Lego launched a product with our logo in their cover image

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28220070

by jinen83 • 5 years ago

1 5 5 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We are a low code/no Code platform for building internal tools. Ironically we do educate customers at times that NoCode is like lego block approach of building software with pre-built blocks.

You think we should be concerned about our logo being used by Lego. If it should be concerning then what options you think we have?

References Our logo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/DronaHQ_...

Lego Dot: https://www.auchan.ro/public/images/hfd/hec/h00/lego-dots-ra...

oenetan• 5 years ago

I'm not getting it. It must be some sort of coincidence. Your logo isn't even on the front box of the lego, and your "logo" just happens to be similar to a combination of one of the legos

I'm just confused, correct me if I'm wrong.

thanatos519• 5 years ago

My first response is: "grow up" ...

... but if you think you could be ceding some copyright by allowing them to coincidentally use this meaningless pattern in a sample frame design in their product photo, then maybe you should mention it to Lego. I am sure they have nice lawyers.

Your thinking is a result of a toxic IP environment. Try not to make it worse.

jinen832• 5 years ago

well - we are not jumping guns here for sure. Our asking is purely driven by the fact that we have no precedence to such an event before. And what we are looking for is if people who have experienced it before could throw light on things that may possibly happen if we ignore it.

eesmith• 5 years ago

IANAL.

There's no apparent trademark infringement here.

There is no confusion between your specific goods or services and those of The Lego Group, which is the purpose of trademarks.

Quoting https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/what-trademark :

For example, let's say you use a logo as a trademark for your small woodworking business to identify and distinguish your goods or services from others in the woodworking field. This doesn't mean you can stop others from using a similar logo for non-woodworking related goods or services.

Your trademark (without the name or border) is weak. See https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/strong-trademarks for some background on what makes a strong trademark.

For example, even though I never did a graphical trademark search before, I found US trademark #90287353 as another example of using squares and "Triangles with one or more curved sides" as the interior of your logo does. It could also easily be done by the "Dots" toy.

Your entire trademark is a stronger one, but The Lego Group doesn't appear to be infringing on that one at all.

You could talk to a lawyer of course. But ... why? Let's say it costs only $1,000 to get Lego to change. Does it benefit you in any way?

jinen832• 5 years ago

Entire purpose of asking this was just to know if we don't act - will it cause any harm.

From what I have gathered so far - there is 0 impact and so it looks like we don't have to bother.

Ask HN: Lego launched a product with our logo in their cover image

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