How LEGO Layered Intellectual Property, Brick by Brick, into Its Own Playground
- Mandi Karpo
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Founded in Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, the LEGO Group began by modestly manufacturing wooden toys crafted from polished beechwood.[2] The company eventually transitioned to plastic, giving rise to the interlocking plastic brick that would come to define the LEGO brand.[3] Inspired by the two Danish words “Leg Godt,” meaning “Play Well,” LEGO’s name reflects quality and children’s right to enjoyable play.[4] January 28, now celebrated as International LEGO Day, commemorates the date the founder’s son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, patented LEGO’s interlocking stud system in Denmark.[5] Ultimately, once the foundational patent expired in 1975, LEGO no longer had sole dominion over the form and design of the brick.[6] As a result, the company had to change its approach, layering multiple forms of intellectual property to defend its market position and transform itself from a toy manufacturer into a global IP powerhouse.[7]
The Building Blocks of Intellectual Property Law
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recognizes four primary forms of intellectual property: trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets.[8] Together, these protections promote (1) utility, (2) expression, (3) source identification, and (4) competitive advantage.[9]
Trademarks protect indicators of source, allowing consumers to identify and differentiate goods in the marketplace.[10] The LEGO trademark protects its name, logos, and trade dress, which is registered in over 150 countries worldwide.[11]
Copyright protections safeguard works that possess (1) originality, (2) creativity, and are (3) fixed in a tangible medium of expression.[12] Copyright does not need to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, but doing so enables the creator to bring an infringement lawsuit into federal courts.[13] Additionally, works created on or after Jan. 1, 1978, have copyright protection for the life of the author plus 70 years after the author's death.[14] LEGO’s copyright protections shield the company’s creative content, including building instructions, illustrations, pictures on packaging, movies, video games, books, and animated series.[15]
The Path to Patent Protection–and Trademark Tribulations
A utility patent, also known as a “patent for invention,” prohibits other individuals or companies from making, using, or selling a new or improved invention without authorization, such as a product, process, or machine.[16] Utility patents are issued by the USPTO and last up to 20 years.[17] LEGO’s brick design, originally derived from the British toy company Kiddicraft, has utility patents in multiple jurisdictions, including Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[18] To date, LEGO has a total of 3,896 patents, of which 3,344 have been granted, and 2,897 are active globally.[19]
U.S. Patent No. 3,005,282, LEGO’s patent for the “Toy Building Brick,” was issued on Oct. 24, 1961.[20] The patent related to bricks or blocks that connected through projections, or studs, extending from the face of the brick and arranged to engage protruding portions of an adjacent element when two bricks are assembled.[21] When the patent expired in 1975, LEGO’s exclusive control over the brick’s functional design vanished, opening the door to competitors to produce competing brick systems compatible with LEGO.[22]
In 1985, U.S. toy manufacturer Tyco, began selling its SUPER BLOCK bricks, which copied the basic design of several LEGO bricks. Tyco advertised the SUPER BLOCK bricks to look and feel like LEGO but at a lower price point.[23] LEGO sued Tyco for false advertising and unfair competition based on Tyco’s use of LEGO marks, designation, and common law trademark based on LEGO’s two by four brick configuration.[24]
While it succeeded in its false advertising claims, LEGO fell short in its attempt to establish a trademark in the brick design itself.[25] The court applied the functionality doctrine, a rule in trademark law that states that a functional product feature that is essential to the use or purpose of the product cannot serve as a trademark.[26] The Tyco litigation made clear that even if the plastic studs on the top of the bricks are highly distinctive of LEGO bricks, the company cannot stop other manufacturers from selling similarly studded bricks if the studs provide a valuable function to the brick.[27]
A similar fate awaited LEGO in Canada. In 2005, LEGO sued Ritvik Holdings (now Mega Brands), a Canadian toy company that manufactured a line of bricks called MEGA Bloks. In a unanimous decision, the Canadian Supreme Court provided a functionality rationale, similar to the one in the Tyco litigation.[28]
The struggle for LEGO continued in Europe in 2010. LEGO appealed a judgment by the Grand Board of Appeal.[29] LEGO sought to protect the red LEGO brick shape in and of itself as a “Community Trade Mark” under EU law, which consists of any signs capable of being represented graphically, particularly words, such as names, designs, letters, the shape of goods or packaging, such that they are capable of distinguishing the goods or services as one undertaking.[30] LEGO argued that the specific combination of features of its brick shape had acquired distinctiveness through use and that excluding shapes based on function alone went beyond what the law required.[31]
Meanwhile, the Appellee’s Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) and Mega Brands Inc. contended that the brick shape was purely functional and therefore ineligible for trademark protection.[32] The European Court of Justice upheld the Board of Appeal’s decision, ruling that the LEGO brick’s shape, which serves a technical function such as the interlocking method of its bricks, is excluded from trademark protection.[33] This decision made it clear under EU law that a product’s functional shape cannot be a registered trademark if its essential characteristics result solely from the technical function it performs.[34]
Success Through Selective Protection
Despite these setbacks, LEGO found success in 2021 when it secured EU design registration for certain brick designs, providing up to 25 years of protection.[35] However, this form of protection is limited to specifically copying the brick’s look, leaving its functional component at risk.[36]
More notably, LEGO has successfully protected the LEGO Minifigure, which was originally launched as the LEGO building figure in 1978.[37] In December 2025, the Second Circuit found that Hong Kong toy manufacturer Zuru Inc.’s Third-Generation Figurines are likely to be confused with and are substantially similar to LEGO’s minifigures, blocking the manufacture and sale of the toy figurines.[38] The Court pointed to the strength of the Minifigure trademark in support of LEGO, where the company invested over $200 million in marketing and sold over 120 million Minifigures between 1978 and 2015.[39]
Partnerships and the Power of Layered IP
Unable to monopolize the brick itself, LEGO pivoted toward partnerships that leveraged its strongest IP rights–trademarks and copyrights–through partnerships with major franchises, to expand beyond physical toys and into storytelling and media.[40]
Early LEGO “themes” relied on its internal creative innovation to refine its System of Play, developing and releasing sets based on broad themes.[41] Themes including “Town” (1955), consisting of a gas station, hotel, and other town buildings, “Castle” and “Space” (1978), and “Pirates” (1989), were entirely original.[42] The turning point came in 1999, when LEGO licensed Star Wars from Lucasfilm, coinciding with the release of Star Wars, Episode 1.[43] The move marked a pivotal shift and radical change in LEGO’s approach to layering IP protections through partnerships, making LEGO Star Wars the company’s first and most popular IP franchise.[44]
Introduced at the 1999 International Toy Fair in New York, LEGO Star Wars launched thirteen sets that year.[45] Since then, LEGO Star Wars has released nearly 700 different sets, including about 1,000 LEGO Star Wars minifigures.[46] LEGO continued to embrace the licensing partnership business model and has gone on to create partnerships with major franchises like Disney’s Marvel and Harry Potter, and Warner Bros.[47]
These partnerships illustrate the hybrid nature of the intellectual property arena that LEGO adopted into its ecosystem, combining trademark co-branding with copyright ownership in derivative works.[48] Through multi-layered protections and strategic licensing, LEGO has transformed itself from a small Danish workshop into a global entertainment and media mogul–proving that even when a patent expires, smart IP strategy can keep the bricks stacking.[49]
References
[1] Photo by Vlad Hilitanu, People Holding Miniature Figures (Aug. 18, 2019), https://unsplash.com/photos/people-holding-miniature-figures-1FI2QAYPa-Y
[2]See Everyday IP: The Building Blocks of LEGO Law, Dennemeyer, (Jan. 29, 2024), https://www.dennemeyer.com/ip-blog/news/everyday-ip-the-building-blocks-of-lego-law/#:~:text=Trademarks%2C%20designs%20and%20more,those%20elements%20of%20LEGO%20products.&text=Nonetheless%2C%20LEGO%20persisted%2C%20finding%20new,sides%20of%20the%20same%20coin.
[3] See id.
[4] See Lego History: The Beginning of the LEGO Group, LEGO https://www.lego.com/en-us/history/articles/b-the-beginning-of-the-lego-group, (last visited Jan. 3, 2026).
[5]See Everyday IP: The Building Blocks of LEGO Law, supra note 2.
[6] See Dan Hunter & Julian Thomas, Lego and the System of Intellectual Property, 1955–2015, SSRN Working Paper 5 (Mar. 7, 2016), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2743140.
[7] See id.
[8]See id.
[9] See Layered Intellectual Property (LIP) Protection, Univ. Lab Partners (last updated Nov. 19, 2020), https://www.universitylabpartners.org/blog/layered-intellectual-property-lip-protection.
[10] See id.
[11]See Aditi Bansal, LEGO’s IP Strategy: From Bricks to Brand Universe, The IP Press (Sep. 28, 2025), https://www.theippress.com/2025/09/28/legos-ip-strategy-from-bricks-to-brand-universe/; see also Chi Nguyen, LEGO: The Timeless IP Champion–Part 1, Future IP UK (Aug. 28, 2024), https://www.futureipuk.com/post/london-ip-week-lego-intellectual-property-lego
[12] See Copyright Law Basics, Univ. Of N. Tex. Libraries, https://guides.library.unt.edu/SCCopyright/basics#s-lg-box-14997580, (last visited Jan. 7, 2025).
[13] See What’s the Difference? Copyright vs Registered Copyright vs Trademark, Destination Legal https://destinationlegal.com/blogs/resources/what-s-the-difference-copyright-vs-registered-copyright-vs-trademark?srsltid=AfmBOopcIv66pqcW5THWr_kYUc2BKAngqrEDa3RgwkFMQPBVRGAxWrGq, (last visited Feb. 28, 2026).
[14] See id; see also 17 U.S.C. § 302(a).
[15] See Bansal, supra note 11.
[16] See Will Kenton, Understanding Utility Patents: Definitions, Issuance, and Examples, Investopedia (last updated Nov. 8, 2025), https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/utility-patent.asp.
[17] See id.
[18] See Erin Blakemore, The Disatrous Backstory Behind the Invention of LEGO Bricks (Sep. 21, 2017), History.com, https://www.history.com/articles/the-disastrous-backstory-behind-the-invention-of-lego-bricks; see also Hunter & Thomas, supra note 6, at 5.
[19] See Lego Patents –Insights & Stats (Updated 2025), Insights by GreyB, https://insights.greyb.com/lego-patents/, (last visited Jan. 4, 2026).
[20] See id.
[21] See id.
[22] See id.
[23] See id.
[24] See id.
[25] See id.
[26] See Functionality Doctrine (Trademark), Cornell L. School, Legal Information Institute, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/functionality_doctrine_(trademark), (last visited Feb. 28, 2026).
[27] See Hunter & Thomas, supra note 6.
[28] See id. at 6–7.
[29] See Case C-48/09 P, Lego Juris A/S v. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, 2010 E.C.R. I-8403 (Ct. Just. Sep. 14, 2010).
[30] See id.
[31] See id.
[32] See id.
[33] See id.
[34] See id.
[35] See Bansal, supra note 11.
[36] See id.
[37]See Everyday IP: The Building Blocks of LEGO Law, supra note 2.
[38] See Gina Kim, 2nd Circ. Tosses Lego Rival's Appeal In IP Fight Over Figurine, Law360 (Dec. 10, 2025), https://www.law360.com/ip/articles/2420726?nl_pk=e677bf47-475f-43a4-97ec-7c37d90298fe&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=4.
[39] See id.
[40] See Bansal, supra note 11.
[41] See Hunter & Thomas, supra note 6, at 9.
[42] See id. at 10.
[43] See id.
[44] See id; see also The Greatest Battle Built Since 1999 – Celebrating 20 years of LEGO® Star Wars™ Fandom, LEGO (Apr. 8, 2019),
[45] See id.
[46] See id.
[47] See Bansal, supra note 11.
[48] See id.
[49] See id.
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