In a post last month, I mentioned that I believed that LEGO was in violation of the Star of Life trademark for their rescue series. I contacted LEGO to inquire about it as it is important to me that this trademark be used for true emergency medical related uses and that when someone sees this mark, they don’t just write it off, but can rely on its meaning. LEGO responded that the trademark was from a government agency and as such, it didn’t have “copyright protection”, according to their legal department. (Trademark and copyright protection are different.) They said, “As long as LEGO Systems Inc. makes an exact replica of the vehicle on which it usually appears, we would not be violating their rights. Therefore the depiction of the Star of Life logo is not in violation of any trademark infringement.”
OK, fine, I didn’t quite believe what they had to say as LEGO was using the trademark on replica buildings as well as replica vehicles. I figured they just thought I was a wacko and basically ignored me. In an interesting twist, I received a followup email from LEGO today indicating that their designers in Denmark weren’t aware of the trademark registration (which was kind of my point, it may have already been diluted too much that people don’t know its proper use) and they’ll research it further. They also said that they’ll discontinue using it if they find they are in violation. Hmmm…I think this means stock up on this year’s rescue sets as they could be gone before you know it, similar to LEGO using a red cross years ago for the rescue series; I’d put money on it that the American/International Red Cross objected to its use. (From what I understand the Red Cross objected to the Boy Scouts using the red cross on a skill award and it was changed to a green cross.)