50 years to the patent on Lego brick

Today we celebrate the release of studded bricks, which are a key element of the Lego designers. The patent for these bricks was issued by the Danish Patent Office exactly half a century ago - October 24, 1961.



Of course, the patent expired long ago, but since 1999 the design was allegedly defended by a trademark and Lego continued to file lawsuits against competitors. The epic around studded bricks ended only in 2010, when the European Court considered the appeal of the Canadian rival Mega Brands and on September 14, 2010 ruled that the design with the spikes of the original Lego brick "just performs a technical function and cannot be a trademark." Thus, the spiked brick finally moved into the public domain.



The construction of the brick is shown in the illustration from the patent issued on October 24, 1961.