TomRoid Posted October 18, 2011 Posted October 18, 2011 Did LEGO Plaigirize anyone? Kiddicraft LEGO may of copied the brick concept from them? There may of been a bunch of brick systems pre-LEGO. Technic Was Technic plagirized? Ban Bao Did LEGO rip off the minifig? Character Building/Friends Did LEGO copy the character building for a line of their own? Did LEGO have similarities with anything else? Tell me what you think... Quote
Aanchir Posted October 18, 2011 Posted October 18, 2011 Did LEGO Plaigirize anyone? Kiddicraft LEGO may of copied the brick concept from them? There may of been a bunch of brick systems pre-LEGO. Technic Was Technic plagirized? Ban Bao Did LEGO rip off the minifig? Character Building/Friends Did LEGO copy the character building for a line of their own? Did LEGO have similarities with anything else? Tell me what you think... The Kiddicraft issue could probably be considered plagiarism. However, TLG was then able to purchase Kiddicraft's brick patent from its owners, so one might argue that made up for the initial breach of ethics, at least in part. Since then the brick has undergone such a decisive transformation from its original design (adopting the stud-and-tube system, for instance, as opposed to just studs and hollow-bottomed bricks) that the copying of Kiddicraft's design is now more or less irrelevant, even though it's a stain on TLG's history of innovation that can never entirely be removed. Your video is interesting, but I don't think it could be argued that LEGO Technic plagiarized this other brand. There are plenty of building toys based on similar beam systems to Technic, not least of which is Erector/Meccano, which varies from LEGO Technic mainly in that it tends to be made of metal rather than plastic and uses screws rather than pins to join beams together. This toy itself varies greatly from Technic in that it seems to lack Technic's distinctive style of snap-together pins, instead relying solely on pins that stay in based on friction alone. LEGO Technic also was, to my knowledge, the first brand to incorporate this style of beam-based building with a brick building toy. I personally feel that the idea of brands "copying" other brands is a bit overrated, especially in the LEGO community. LEGO has somewhat perpetuated this idea with lawsuits against companies that copy their products. However, as has been demonstrated in the courts, being a "clone brand" like Mega Bloks isn't the same as more blatantly imitating LEGO products. Companies like Enlighten plagiarize LEGO products, and have been found guilty of violating intellectual property laws in various courts. In contrast, Mega Bloks and similar clone brands only imitate the proportions of LEGO bricks for the sake of inter-compatibility, one of their greatest selling points (and something that regrettably it seems building toy companies can no longer do without). Their products are brick-based, but their designs are significantly different from LEGO set designs, and even the individual parts (besides basic bricks) tend to be designed differently than LEGO parts that perform similar functions. Regrettably, it seems some companies are beginning to push their limits, such as BanBao with their LEGO-like minifigure design and Super Blox, a company which has completely duplicated certain specialized LEGO parts like curved slopes. So TLG does have to remain vigilant against theft of intellectual property. And I think they are justified in doing so-- companies that copy or imitate LEGO products are certainly making an ethical misstep, although it's up to the courts to determine when this qualifies as a legal misstep as well. Quote
Siegfried Posted October 18, 2011 Posted October 18, 2011 Philiform has been discussed before and I've already had my rant on it, Kiddicraft is old news, and well... To be honest this topic is on dangerous grounds already; EB is a LEGO site so we don't want people discussing non-LEGO building toys, and we also don't see much worth in competitor bashing topics. So keep that in mind with this topic. If it crosses either line it'll be moved and/or closed. Quote
davee123 Posted October 18, 2011 Posted October 18, 2011 I guess I'm not overly concerned? I seem to recall that back in the late 1930's, there were a bunch of people playing around with plastic and rubber toys (it was a new material for manufacturing at the time), and there were several designs similar to LEGO. And Kiddicraft bricks weren't really produced for sale until after the war, when the materials started to become available (1947 I think?). My understanding of the story is that when LEGO purchased their injection molding machine in 1947, they also received samples of OTHER toys that were being made using the same technology, as inspiration and proof-of-concept. However, Kiddicraft bricks weren't patented in Denmark, so LEGO (being primarily, if not solely, a Danish company at the time), made their own molds that were very similar, and sold them, starting in 1949. By 1958, LEGO came up with their own system (actually, several systems) that were better than the Kiddicraft system, and patented those in several markets. The only question legally is whether or not LEGO actually sold its automatic-binding-brick product somewhere where the Kiddicraft patent was still valid between 1949-1958. Offhand, I don't recall when LEGO expanded sales to England, and I'm not sure if Kiddicraft was patented elsewhere. LEGO purchased the residual rights sometime later, but I'm not really even sure if it needed to. From 1958 onward, I think LEGO was sufficiently different from Kiddicraft to hold its own in court-- except for perhaps the same thing that LEGO still tries to sue MegaBloks for, which is basically similarity to their "trademark" of a 2x4 brick. Other than that... so what? That's basically the way that human inspiration works. Someone comes up with an idea, and other people get inspired by it, and try to improve on it. LEGO did the best job with the "plastic construction toy" idea, and have built up a huge business based on it. Good for them. Mega Bloks, Loc-Blocks, Kre-O, Best Lock, K'Nex blocks, etc have all had similar products, and that's fine too. DaveE Quote
TomRoid Posted October 30, 2011 Author Posted October 30, 2011 You know, before, with seeing LEGO knock offs I'd of course dislike them. Just then I was looking at Mario Kart K'nex sets and I did have thoughts of getting a set or more. I saw them in Toys R Us. They have Mario figures which may be LEGO compatible. :) Quote
Lyichir Posted October 30, 2011 Posted October 30, 2011 I was going to give a well thought-out reply, but I've been rendered speechless by the unfortunate typo in the topic subtitle... Kiddic-fart? Quote
TomRoid Posted October 31, 2011 Author Posted October 31, 2011 I was going to give a well thought-out reply, but I've been rendered speechless by the unfortunate typo in the topic subtitle... Kiddic-fart? I just noticed that. Lol Quote
mobi Posted March 13, 2012 Posted March 13, 2012 How do the Lego clones stand against the originals? I heard about Megablocks micro bricks are fully compatible with Lego. Did anyone try them? Does it also have clones for axles, differentials, cogs? Quote
allanp Posted March 13, 2012 Posted March 13, 2012 The clones are pretty much all compatible but of shoddy quality compared to Lego. None of these clone brands have their own version of technic that is compatible with it as far as I know, so no gears, diffs and so on. Quote
bb15080 Posted March 13, 2012 Posted March 13, 2012 http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=61278 Quote
Lipko Posted March 13, 2012 Posted March 13, 2012 I saw some Korean or Chinese Techic clones, they were small sets with awkward colors, I can't recall the name. Quote
Lyichir Posted March 13, 2012 Posted March 13, 2012 Mega Bloks seems to be a lot better than it used to me, if I judge by sets displayed at toy stores. Their new attention to quality may be due to other brands like Best-Lock stealing away the "bargain bricks" market. Best-Lock is poorer quality than Mega Bloks ever was, that's for sure. K'nex started using LEGO-like bricks in addition to their traditional building system fairly recently. I can't say I'm impressed with those; I don't know about their quality from personal experience, but I can tell that more K'nex sets are relying on these bricks rather than the complex functionality I remember from my childhood. The integration of these elements seems even poorer than that of Z'nap, when the shoe was on the other foot and LEGO was trying to ape K'nex's building style. Also, why is this in the Technic subforum? Quote
Milan Posted March 13, 2012 Posted March 13, 2012 Also, why is this in the Technic subforum? It will be moved soon probably. Quote
Rufus Posted March 13, 2012 Posted March 13, 2012 How do the Lego clones stand against the originals? I heard about Megablocks micro bricks are fully compatible with Lego. Did anyone try them? Does it also have clones for axles, differentials, cogs? I'll merge this with the Clone Brands discussion in Community. Quote
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