Intellectual property body warns vs. fake LEGO products

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) on Tuesday warned the public against buying fake LEGO toys following reports and raids showing the prevalence of these products in the markets.

In a statement, the IPOHHL said that last July, the National Bureau of Investigation’s IP Rights Division (NBI-IPRD) hauled over 2,000 boxes of copycat LEGO products worth P6.2 million from a mall in Mindanao. 

The LEGO products bore the copyright-protected designs and images of LEGO A/S and marks identical or confusingly similar to the marks of LEGO Juris A/S, the agency said.

"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," said IP Rights Enforcement Office officer-in-charge Ann Edillon said.

Edillon said that there remained a handful of willing buyers of cheap and substandard products.

"The low price will always be an attractive selling point to any consumer. But wise consumers, especially parents, should always consider quality, durability, and especially the safety of the toys and products their children use," she said. 

Atty. Franklin Galman, the LEGO Group’s IP rights corporate legal counsel for the APAC region, said that LEGO products are made of materials of the highest quality that live up to the "strictest safety standards," but infringing products do not follow quality control standards and "are usually manufactured under unsanitary conditions."

LEGO A/S and LEGO Juris A/S are both part of the Denmark-based LEGO Group, IPOPHL said.

LEGO A/S owns the copyright over thousands of designs and images appearing on LEGO products, while LEGO JURIS A/S owns the internationally well-known LEGO marks such as the 3D minifigure, among others, it said.

Earlier this year, IPOPHL representatives met with the LEGO Group to discuss enforcement actions and remedies that could protect the company’s IPs.

"We’re happy to know that Philippine laws take a more aggressive stance against copycats, in addition to the usual counterfeiters," said Galman.

Copycats are considered IP infringing goods under the copyright infringement and unfair competition provisions of the IP Code, IPOPHL said.

The Danish toy manufacturer is also mulling over the prospects of joining the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that IPOPHL helped facilitate between companies and e-commerce platforms to boost proactive and responsive measures against IP violations online, it said. —VBL, GMA News