IP rights body warns public vs copycat Lego toys

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) on Tuesday warned the public against buying copycat Lego toy products, citing the dangers of buying substandard copies of the plastic building-block toys and figures.

IPOPHL said the National Bureau of Investigation’s IP Rights Division (IPRD) seized over 2,000 boxes of copycat Lego products worth about P6.2 million last July at a mall in Mindanao.

“With the sizable haul of the NBI-IPRD, we urge the public to take heightened caution in buying Lego products and make sure that they transact only with legitimate Lego stores and verified accounts on e-commerce platforms,” IP Rights Enforcement Office Officer in Charge Ann Edillon said.

The seized contraband bore the copyright protected designs and images of Danish toy-production company Lego A/S, as well as marks identical or confusingly similar to those of Lego Juris A/S.

Lego Juris A/S is the business unit which owns the globally popular Lego marks.

In a follow-up message sent to the Inquirer, the IPOPHL said IP rights holders verify the authenticity of a suspected product and gather evidence. They then submit this evidence to local courts for seizure, which is then acted upon by the NBI.

Some copycat Legos in the market are easily identifiable because of the quality of the plastic, the sharp edges and the degree of difficulty in separating pieces of the detachable toy blocks according to the IPOPHL. INQ