Lego loses legal battle over brick trademark

The world knows about Lego’s bricks and its been using the basic brick as its icon throughout the years. Apparently Lego had a legal battle with a Canadian company over the brick and the court ruled against Lego.

The issue was whether the famous LEGO brick served a technical function. European law says companies can trademark graphic images like words, designs, the shape of their goods and packaging – but trademarking a product’s shape, if that shape is “necessary to obtain a technical result,” is not allowed, the court said.

Seems that as a consequence of this final ruling, any company can now use the same brick design for their toy products. Lego can no longer appeal.

When Anime Fansubs Went Wrong

Oh, it’s moo!

When Anime Fansubs Went Wrong

Is Apple a hardware vendor or something else?

Apple is not a hardware vendor per se, they are more like an IT consultant. That’s why Apple Store is so successful. In a way, Apple Store is their primary product, like GAP stores are really GAP’s primary product. The user walks in with a problem, and Apple provides a solution made up of a combination of hardware, software, online services, support services, training, accessories, and even culture. Apple users pay for that entire package. If the hardware is commoditized and cheap, that means more profit for Apple, not less, because they are the hardware *buyer* not seller. They buy the hardware on behalf of the user.

From a comment on an Asymco blog post.

Everything is a remix. There will be four parts to this series.

thedailywhat:

Stop-Motion Short of the Day: Creative communications agency Dentsu London collaborated with BERG on a stop-motion visualization of their “Making Future Magic” strategy, which features stunning iPad-produced light drawings.

The good stuff starts at 1:40.

[t&t.]

Burning Questions by Desi Anwar

Obama is sticking his neck out to protect Muslims in America. Where is Yudhoyono’s effort to protect Christians in Indonesia? His pusillanimity has only escalated the problem.

Burning Questions by Desi Anwar