Lego's Canadian Rival Sees Brickwall at Border

Lego made headlines after a couple of Canadian teen tech whizzes sent a Lego man to space and created a viral video that captured the world's imagination. But it's not all awe-inspiring for the brand in Canada.

Lego's main competitor, Mega Brands of Canada, would like Lego to share some of the market space and thinks the company has pulled a few fast ones along the way to make sure that it doesn’t have to.

This kind of anticompetitive accusation typically leads to litigation, so no surprise that Mega has filed a federal antitrust complaint against Lego.

Mega Brands' legal counsel has filed suit claiming that Lego “falsely claimed ‘exclusive rights to the functional cylindrical stud element that is commonly used in construction blocks,’” according to Courthouse News.

"Mega Brands brings this action to stop Lego's illegal efforts to monopolize the construction toy market through illegal anti-competitive practices including, but not limited to, use of fraudulently obtained IP [intellectual property] rights to interfere with Mega Brands' right to continue to import certain competitive products into the United States," the complaint states, according to CN.

Why is Mega so irked? The company claims that Lego went to the U.S. Customs Department to inform it that Mega’s products should be detained. The complaint reads:

"On information and belief, Lego engaged in ex parte communication (including one or more meetings) with the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency ('Customs') during which Lego improperly asserted exclusive rights to the functional cylindrical stud element that is commonly used in construction blocks based on a trademark registered with the Customs (Lego's Trademark Registration No. 2,273,314 for a 'cylindrical surface feature' (the 'Lego trademark')). Lego obtained the Lego trademark and used the registration to mislead the Customs service into believing that Lego had exclusive rights to the functional cylindrical stud element despite knowing that there was no objective basis for the assertion.”

Since the Lego patent ran out in the 1980s, the company has tried to sue for infringement in many nations, Mega notes, with the cases usually being thrown out.