Lego clone

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title: "Lego clone" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["lego-clones", "construction-toys"] description: "Children's Lego-style construction blocks" topic_path: "general/lego-clones" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_clone" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Children's Lego-style construction blocks ::

frame|right|Mega Bloks building block (above) and [[Lego]] building brick (below) A Lego clone is a line or brand of children's construction blocks which is mechanically compatible with Lego brand blocks, but is produced by another manufacturer. The blocks were originally patented by The Lego Group in 1961 as "toy building bricks", and the company has since remained dominant in this market. Some competitors have moved to take advantage of Lego brand recognition by advertising their own products as compatible with Lego, with statements such as "compatible with leading building bricks".

The last underlying patents of the brick design expired in 1978, opening the field to rivals.

At least two of the largest clone manufacturers have been challenged in court by Lego. The lawsuits have been mostly unsuccessful, for courts have generally found the functional design of the basic brick to be a matter of patent rather than trademark law, and all relevant Lego patents have expired.

Legal challenges

Although Lego itself originally copied its bricks from British psychologist and inventor Hilary Page in the late 1940s, the company has sued others whom it perceived as producing overly similar products (Lego claims that when contacted by LEGO in the late 1950s, Kiddicraft gave no objection to the Danish company manufacturing the bricks; Lego eventually purchased the rights to the Kiddicraft bricks and trademark from the descendants of Page in 1981).

Lego and Tyco Industries fought in US courts over Tyco's line of interlocking bricks in the 1980s with Tyco prevailing. On August 31, 1987, the US District Court ruled that Tyco could continue making Super Blocks, its Lego clone bricks, but ordered Tyco to stop using the Lego trademark and not to state that they were "Lego, but only cheaper". In Lego's Hong Kong suit against Tyco Super Blocks, Lego received an injunction forcing Tyco to stop cloning Lego bricks designed after 1973. Tyco was also being sued at the time by Lego in Austria, Italy and Canada.

In 1990s Lego sued the Canadian company Mega Bloks on the grounds that its use of the "studs and tubes" interlocking brick system was a violation of trademarks held by Lego. On November 17, 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Mega Bloks' right to continue selling the product in Canada. A similar decision was reached by the European Union's Court of First Instance on November 12, 2008, upholding an EU regulatory agency's reversal of opinion following an objection by Mega Bloks against a trademark awarded to Lego in 1999. Mega Bloks won a case at the EU's top court in 2010 against Lego's trademark registration of a red toy building brick. On September 14, 2010, the European Court of Justice ruled that the 8-peg design of the original Lego brick "merely performs a technical function [and] cannot be registered as a trademark."

right|thumb|Best-Lock and Lego bricks compared. Left to right; alternating Best-Lock then Lego in pairs. Also in the 1990s, Korean company Oxford was sued by The Lego Group over similar designs, but the case was eventually ruled in Oxford's favor.

In 2000, Lego filed a three-dimensional trademark for its mini-figures, which Best Lock had duplicated since 1998. In 2012, Best Lock sued to get the trademark revoked. On June 16, 2015, European Court of Justice upheld Lego's figure trademark. Lego had in 2009 filed its copyright claims into a U.S. Customs database that led to the seizure of Best-Lock shipments coming in from Asia. In October 2011, Lego filed in US District Court in Hartford filed against Best-Lock over the mini-figure trademark.

The Lego Group did score a success in 2002, when its Swiss subsidiary Interlego AG sued the Tianjin CoCo Toy Co., Ltd. company for copyright infringement. A claims court found many CoCo sets to be infringing; CoCo was ordered to cease manufacture of the infringing sets, publish a formal apology in the Beijing Daily, and pay a small fee in damages to Interlego. On appeal, the Beijing High People's Court upheld the trial court's ruling.

The English company Best-Lock Construction Toys sued Lego in German courts in 2004 and 2009. The German Federal Court denied Lego trademark protection for the shape of its bricks in the latter case.

In 2011, Lego sued Guangdong Jumbo Grand Plastic Moulding Industrial over its BanBao brand's similar packaging. The two companies settled their case out of court with Guangdong agreeing to create unique packaging and a new figure design. In 2016, Lego announced that it would be taking legal action against the Chinese company Guangdong Loongon, which manufactures the brand Lepin, for selling exact replicas of existing Lego products (including box-art). In 2019, Lego sued Lakeshore Learning Materials for violating its minifigure trademark. In 2020, Lego was successful in blocking Zuru from selling its own version of minifigures, the court finding that Zuru infringed upon Lego's trademark. In 2021, the Guangdong High Court handed down a judgment ordering Guangdong Meizhi and three other defendants (the originators of the LEPIN clone trademark) to pay () in punitive damages for trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Brands

The following brands have been described as "Lego clones":

::data[format=table]

Name	Years active	Manufacturer
ATC	1970s	, from Japan
Anko (also known as Construction: Blocks)	2019–present	Kmart Australia
BanBao	2010–present	Guangdong Jumbo Grand Plastic Moulding Industrial Co., Ltd.
Bikku	2018–present	Keak Japan Co., Ltd.
BlueBrixx	2018–present	BB Services GmbH
Built to Rule	2003–2005	Hasbro
Best-Lock	1997–present	Best-Lock Group
CaDA	2007–present	Double Eagle Toys Industry Co. Ltd.
Cobi	1995–present	Best-Lock Group
CoCo		Tianjin COCO Toy Co., Ltd.
Cogo		Guangdong Loongon
Jiestar
JMBricklayer		JMBricklayer
Kre-O	2011–2017	Hasbro
Lakeshore Learning Company
Laser Pegs		Laser Pegs Ventures
Lepin		Guangdong Loongon
Ligao (立高)	1999–	Wange Toys Industrial Company
Lite Brix	2013	Cra-Z-Art (LaRose Industries)
LumiBricks (formerly FunWhole, "FO")
Make-it Blocks		proprietary brand of Dollar Tree
Mega Bloks	1991–present	Mega Brands (Mattel)
Mega Construx		Mega Brands (Mattel)
Mirabloco	1980s	CMiranda scholar equipment, from Portugal
Mould King	2012–present	Mould King
Nifeliz	2020–present	Nifeliz
N&B Block	1968–1972	Nintendo
Oxford	1996–	Oxford
Pantasy	2020–present	Pantasy
Pop Blocks		Pop Mart
Qman (formerly Enlighten)	1994–present	Guangdong Qman Industry Toys Co., Ltd.
Reobrix		Shantou Juhang Toy Technology Co., Ltd.
Sembo Block
Sluban	2004–present	Sluban
Tyco Super Blocks	1984–1990	Tyco Toys/Mattel
Wilko Blox		Wilko
Xingbao	2016	subsidiary of Lepin, Guangdong Loongon
Zuru MAX (Build More)		Zuru
::

• K'Nex sets have included compatible bricks since 2008.
• Ramagon, by Discovery Toys, has some panels with compatible studs

References

References

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2. Joffe-Walt, Chana. (2012-12-13). "Why Legos Are So Expensive — And So Popular". NPR.
3. (14 August 2015). "Laser Pegs Hands-On Review - Light Up Construction Bricks". techagekids.com.
4. (February 2, 2005). "Building a Legal Case, Block by Block". New York Times.
5. "Automatic Binding Bricks".
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7. (January 30, 2012). "Lego locked in domestic copyright fight". Hartford Business Journal.
8. (September 1, 1987). "Lego, Tyco Each Declare Victory in Battle of the Bricks". Washington Post.
9. "2005 SCC 65". CanLII.
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12. 수정, 입력. (2011-04-26). "[하이! 우리 브랜드] ㈜옥스포드".
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16. (2005-03-28). "Forty-year Monopolistic ''LEGO-Doctrine'' Ruling Reversed as Best-Lock Europe LTD Wins Patent and Trademark Case". CCNMatthews Newswire.
17. von RA Dennis Breuer. (2012-04-19). "''Pressemitteilung des BGH Nr. 158/2009: Legostein als Marke gelöscht | markenmagazin:recht''". Markenmagazin.de.
18. "''Pressemitteilung Nr. 147/04 vom 3.12.2004''". Juris.bundesgerichtshof.de.
19. (September 24, 2012). "China Watch: Banbao Blames Lego For Not Letting Banbao Copy Lego". Brandchannel.
20. "Fierce copyright battle mars Lego's push in China".
21. Hancock, Graham E.. (2019-06-12). "The LEGO Group sues Lakeshore Learning Materials for copyright infringement".
22. "LEGO Blocks Out ZURU in Copyright Dispute Over Minifigures | Incontestable Blog".
23. "LEGO vs. LEPIN: How Punitive Damages work in a Trademark Infringement Case".
24. (February 12, 2011). "Hasbro pushes into Lego's land with new blocks". USA Today.
25. [https://spielzeugblog.net/hersteller/cada/ Cada Klemmbausteine], accessed: 2021-02-28
26. [https://www.barweer.com/blog/detail/lego-alternatives-the-best-off-brand-building-blocks-for-2025 LEGO Alternatives: The Best Off-Brand Building Blocks for 2025]
27. (July 20, 2011). "Playing with Hasbro's Kre-O Transformer kits: don't call them Lego". Ars Technica.
28. (June 30, 2013). "Patent Fight Short Circuits 'Laser Peg' Toy Plan". CNBC.
29. Pasick, Adam. (3 October 2013). "Lego looks to expand in China, the land of Lego knock-offs".
30. Ness, Daniel. (July 25, 2021). "Block Parties: Identifying Emergent STEAM Thinking Through Play". Routledge.
31. (2025-04-07). "FunWhole Unveils New Name – LumiBricks!".
32. Eric Schoon. (Jul 2, 2022). "5 LEGO Alternatives That Still Work With LEGO Bricks". [[How To Geek]].
33. (2024-02-23). "Best LEGO alternatives for adults (2024)".
34. Stanton, Rich. (2013-02-14). "The History of Nintendo: 1889-1980 review".
35. "THE MONSTERS Forest Secret Base Series Blocks Part 2". Pop Mart.
36. [https://www.lumibricks.com/blogs/news/best-lego-alternatives Best LEGO Alternatives For Adults You Should Never Miss Out]

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