If one is to ask LEGO, they would say that theirs are the only true building-brick construction toy brand in the world, with every other company manufacturing any toy blocks with an interlocking-stud system being in violation of their original brick patent. LEGO has crusaded against such copycat toy rip-offs in China this year and previously. Now they have a new target in the U.S. in the person of Zuru Toys.
LEGO is taking exception to Zuru Toys, a company with a wide variety of products for kids that has recently rolled out two construction-brick lines, Max Build More and Mayka launched just this October. The Denmark-based global toy giant is filing a restraining order from their US HQ in Connecticut to keep MBM and Mayka products off the shelves of toy retailers such as Walmart.
In their RO filing, LEGO points out that not only do the Max Build More and Mayka toys from Zuru have the telltale LEGO-brick interlocking studs, plus similar-looking human minifigures, the deliberate marketing of MBM as having more brick pieces at affordable prices than LEGO sets is a “fair-play” violation.
In LEGO’s words, the cheaper rates for Max Build More brick products can do “irreparable harm” to the reputation of more expensively priced but high-quality LEGO sets, and also trigger consumer confusion during holiday shopping by exploiting their desires for bargains. Lastly, the toy giant is also playing the “copyright infringement” card on Zuru’s “inferior” products.
For their part, Zuru Toys has sent word via their representing attorney Thomas Dunlap of Dunlap, Bennett & Ludwig that LEGO’s complaint and restraining order filing is being reviewed by his clients, pending a response.