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It has been mentioned in the past that LEGO may crack down on companies that print 3rd party logos onto Minifigures, today in a surprising turn of events they have issued a statement!

You can read the full statement below, but here’s the gist of it, they’re protecting their trademark of the Minifigure branding and have issued guidelines of what you can and cannot do with it. This means that any “3rd party logos, names of organizations, and trademarks onto LEGO MInifigures” are a big no no. You also can’t use, order, distribute, or sell Minifigures with any printing corporate printing on them.

Generic SigFigs that use standard LEGO parts are fine however and we’re now more than ever being encouraged to use them. As far as promoting LUGs and Events goes printing onto LEGO Bricks is still fine. 

What does this mean for brands I hear you cry, well businesses will no longer be able to sell or give away logo printed Minifigure parts, as that would infringe upon the LEGO Group’s trademark. There is no word on when this new policy will begin so just to be careful these companies should begin to take measures in removing the service from websites and alike.

Please head down to the comments below and let us know your thoughts on this.


Official statement:

Customized LEGO Minifigures with printed 3rd party logos, names of organizations, and trademarks are not allowed. It’s not acceptable to use of the registered Minifigure trademark in combination with 3rd party symbols. The reason for the rule is that a trademark cannot simultaneously serve as an exclusive, representative symbol of two different entities. The ability of the Minifigure to serve as a distinctive LEGO brand symbol is reduced when a Minifigure is also printed with the name, logo, symbol, or other representative indicia of another entity. Left unchallenged, such use by third-party entities could put our rights in the Minifigure at risk and could eventually result in the loss of our company’s exclusive rights. This is something that we cannot risk.

Therefore, we must request that the community refrain from printing any 3rd party logos, names of organizations, and trademarks onto LEGO Minifigures, and refrain from using, ordering, distributing or selling Minifigures in such customized versions.

We understand that the AFOL Community would still like to celebrate their community events and activities via use of customized items and are pleased to confirm that according to current corporate policy fans are free to print graphics on LEGO brick elements and custom builds made of LEGO brick elements to celebrate your community activities and events.

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Greg
Hello there, I’m Greg, the founder of The Brick Post! Please join me in appreciating all things LEGO from news and reviews to MOCs and more!

4 Comments

  1. I understand the reasons behind their decision but it’s going to suck that we can no longer put our own logos on lego minifigure torso. A lot of people will end up using third party “fake” minifigure torsos.

    1. It’s a real shame. Us AFOLs have had it bad recently, news of price increases and now this, what’s next? MOCs aren’t allowed?

  2. It seems to be a move based out of fear. In my experience those moves generally hurt the image of a company rather than help with trademarks and such. That being said I’m not really a fan of other company logos on my minifigures.

  3. I guess it’s because of the lawsuits in Europe to delete the minifigure trademark (which TLG won; Bluebrixx vs. TLG). But the fear of loosing market shares is real and the loss of the minifigure would be the loss of the main barrier to forcefully keep competitors out (as seen in Germany with the customs blockade; TLG vs. Steingemachtes (General importer of Qman)).

    I guess it’s all part of an opening market.
    And I personally hope, that it’s good for us consumers in the end: Lower prices, better products.

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