2-145 Talking about trouble
Dawn really needs to clean the windows of her shop!
Trademark-trouble
There are many things to keep in mind when creating a Brick Comic. Using Lego bricks to bring a comic to live brings an extra issue aside from script, photography and those sorts of artistic things. This time I’m talking about trademarks!
Lego has a few rules that can be found in a Legal Notice/ Fair Play document. I thought I covered everything like not using the trademark Logo, having a disclaimer on the site, (mostly) using the word ‘Lego’ as an adjective and not as a noun, etc.
Suddenly I noticed this line: “The LEGO Trademark cannot be used in an Internet Address”! This one slipped right past me. Noticing all the major websites in the AFOL-community using the word: ‘brick’ in stead of ‘Lego’, I assumed that was an AFOL-thing. Yet, I (naively) never realised this was something The Lego company really wants.
On a few occasions I had pleasant interactions with employés of The Lego Company, yet, they never mentioned my name as posing a problem. Yet, I do want to follow the rules on this too. This means I will rebrand “Foolish Lego” to “Foolish Bricks” as soon as possible. This will not happen right away because there are a few obstacles to overcome, like how to deal with redirects and such. Besides, I will use this opportunity to substantially improve the site in ‘looks’ and mechanics. Of course the content of the side won’t change. If any, it’ll only get better; the comic will go on, the photography will go on and I will further upgrade the blog.
Once the new site is ready -I’m hoping well before summer- ‘foolishbricks.com‘ will be the site to be.
I would seriously consider leaving it the way it is. You’ve been operating now for many years and have made yourself very noticeable within the online Lego community.
When I was first starting Ballinabricky, I looked into the disclaimers etc, and the general impression was that Lego doesn’t give people a hard time unless they’re doing something controversial or which might make for blowback on the company. That way, they have themselves covered if they want to be disassociated from the person.
I doubt very much that you would ever rankle the folks over at Lego with your content, but rebranding could make for some trouble/loss for you.
If it ever got to a point that Lego wanted you to change the name, they would begin by sending you an official request to do so, at which point you could jump on that rebranding if you want.
I wish I knew if they really have a problem with it! Of course I would really like to keep using my current name.
However, TLG is really going after these domain-names, usually commercial ones, but also non-commercial ones.
There is a chance that if they go after the domain-name they won’t win, but I simply don’t want it to come that far< I don't want to get in any conflict with them.
That’s a fair concern.
Are you familiar with the podcast “All Sorted”? I highly recommend it, even tough they seem to go through periods without updates when their lives get busy (they’re both dads of young kids). Anyway, one of their old episodes talks about people using Lego for projects…sometimes getting into trouble and sometimes not.
I can say from experience that it’s worth the investment to listen through all the old episodes (they’re not long). You’ll learn so much weird stuff about Lego:
http://www.breakingdads.com/category/all-sorted/as-pod/
Thx, I will listen to them in due time. 🙂
I remember asking the LEGO company what could be done or not (like using the “OCTAN” logo on trucks). The only answer I ever got was “Ask your lawyer” in short… LOL. Like do what you want, but we’ll be watching!
Sometimes it’s hard to understand the ins and outs of such “rules”.
I mean a website like yours is doing more good than bad to the LEGO brand. I think you’re not asking anything from them or thing like that… Both side could enjoy the benefits of mutually existing… Yet for a ton of reasons (that would only make sense to lawyers or judges), you can’t do this or that, can’t use that name or that logo…
Sometimes our world is so depressing… Not because some things are forbidden… But because it actually make some sense in some perspective for this things to be forbidden…
True, I do understand their policy.
If they allow one; why not all.
I only wish I knew before…