LEGO Scores Victory in Toy Figure Copyright Fight (1)

A toymaker has infringed LEGO A/S’s copyrighted minifigures by selling nearly identical figurines, a federal court has ruled.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut July 25 tentatively granted LEGO’s bid for summary judgment on its copyright claim against Best-Lock Construction Toys Inc., on the grounds that Best-Lock improperly copied the minifigure’s creative elements.

LEGO adequately showed that Best-Lock copied its minifigure design because the dimensions, shape, and proportions of the two company’s models are “visually indistinguishable,” the court said.

The decision highlights the difficulty in identifying an object’s artistic elements, which can be protected by copyright, from ...