The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has invalidated the ‘Lepin’ trademark, following a complaint from the LEGO Group. Longjun Toys filed the trademark for their Lepin brand back in June 2017, a few short months later LEGO® applied to have the trademark invalidated. As you may know Lepin sets are basically complete copies of real LEGO sets. Often with slight tweaks to names such has Star Wars being Star Plan, LEGO City being Cities and so on. Sets are also advertised using the packaging images lifted from LEGO sets. But the main point of contention here is the Lepin logo. This uses the same style and colour scheme as the LEGO logo. Longjun Toys tried to argue that their logo was totally different due to them uses a black and white version of their logo for the trademark application. This didn’t help their case and the UKIPO ruled in the LEGO Group’s favour. It’s yet another small victory for LEGO in their continued battle with knock-off products. Learn more WIPR where you’ll also find a link to the UKIPO report which is filled with some nice little snippets of information.
