Brussels (dpa) - Lego may have a pathway to protect its bricks as intellectual property after the EU General Court handed the Danish toymaker a win in a dispute about whether the design of some of its bricks can be exclusively registered.
The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) erred in law when it found that the bricks in question did not qualify as a protected design, the bloc's second-highest court ruled on Wednesday.
The office had failed to examine part of Lego's argument, according to a statement sent out by the General Court.
In 2019, EUIPO sided with a German Lego rival, Delta Sport, arguing that all the features of the product's design were determined by its technical function. This meant they could not be considered a design per se, so EUIPO nixed its protected status.
But the court found on Wednesday found that the "mechanical fittings of modular products may constitute an important element of [their] innovative characteristics... and present a major marketing asset," according to the press release.
The design of such products can therefore be eligible for protection, the General Court argued, noting that EUIPO did not examine whether the Lego products qualified for this exception, as the company argued.