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As you probably already know, LEGO is hunting images of preliminary versions of sets that are published on the internet as soon as a retailer leaves his catalog lying around in the hands of AFOLs anxious to share their findings. Often times, LEGO is accused of organizing these leaks intentionally, it is not, it is an urban legend. The leaks come exclusively from these catalogs intended for resellers and which allow them, long months before the official release of the products, to organize their supplies.
In general, when such images are published, LEGO community eaters Jan Beyer et Kevin hinckle take care of informing you by email that the images you publish are stamped with the CONFIDENTIAL seal and ask you, sometimes politely, to remove them without delay from your flickr space, your blog, etc ... Do not kid yourself, denunciation is obviously in order. A certain number of AFOLs consider that the publication of these images is prejudicial to the manufacturer and do not hesitate to warn these community managers or the LEGO Ambassador in France, who will also send you an email in French asking you to remove the visuals concerned under penalty of being prosecuted if you do not comply as soon as possible. The competition between the different sites or blogs dealing with LEGO news is also a determining factor in the process of denouncing the neighbor who publishes images that will generate a very large audience.
If you do not act quickly, then LEGO will shift into high gear and mandate the law firm Hogan Lovells to inform you via a formal notice that you are breaking the law by posting these images and that you expose yourself in order to the closure of your site / blog, legal action for infringement and a request for compensation on behalf of LEGO for the damage suffered. At the same time, your host is warned that you are committing a serious offense and is threatened with being held responsible, or in any case an accomplice, for the damage suffered by the manufacturer. Is. It is fair game, even if I refute the arguments used by the lawyers of Hogan Lovells concerning industrial injury.
But where all this gets more dangerous is that the same law firm informs you that you do not have the right to publish anything that relates directly or indirectly to LEGO products: Logo, official visuals and audiences, instructions, photos of sets, minifigs, parts, etc ... The simple act of posting a LEGO set visual exposes you directly to infringement proceedings.
If we stick to the arguments developed by master Marie-Aimee de Dampierre, lawyer at Hogan Lovells in charge of the case and who signs the formal notice that was communicated to me, it is impossible to talk about LEGO products, in any form whatsoever, without exposing yourself to legal proceedings. It is forbidden to publish the logo of the company, to speak about the products by mentioning the brand explicitly and the posting online of visuals of the products yet in the catalog of the toy manufacturer and presented in thousands of online shops is under an offense punishable by criminal penalties.
Should we take this legal argument seriously? I wouldn't take the risk of checking it out, Hogan Lovells is a firm that has the means to put you through the worst hassles, as can be seen from the history of legal actions carried out by this firm on behalf of LEGO, and it is better not to go too far otherwise you will find yourself at the helm of a court following a summary action aimed at obtaining the withdrawal of all the content in dispute. But this type of threat puzzles me. If I stick to the arguments developed in this formal notice, I should immediately close my blogs and steer clear of any mention of the brand in the future in any form. And I'm not the only one, every site, forum or blog dealing with LEGO products, the passion for these construction toys, should do the same.
So, as requested in this formal notice, I have removed the visuals stamped CONFIDENTIAL, you will find them anyway in the Google cache and on many other blogs that have not yet suffered the wrath of LEGO. But it would be too much to ask of me to self-censor the entire content of this blog.
If LEGO wants to sue me because I blog about my passion, so be it.
Below is the formal notice received from the cabinet Hogan Lovells :
Formal notice - French version
Formal notice - English version
- Mosko : It made me so happy to put it back together like before :D...
- Mosko : Really overpriced at the time it's a bit stupid...
- Mosko : Just for Hagrid with his apron I'm interested, he is...
- Mosko : Really nice, a nice piece...
- Mosko : It's really not that great visually for my taste....
- Mosko : They are boring at Lego, I have no more space on the shelf...
- Mosko : Nice, I saw it at the Lego store, it looks good....
- Masterlol : A successful set, there are many details, the cabin that...
- Kriss : Nice, will sell at a high price on the secondary market. Dom...
- RaccoonBlue : The price seems excessive, even if it looks nice on paper...
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