Ice Watch Boxes Infringe Lego’s Trade Marks

On 11 December 2012, the Court of Appeal of Brussels ordered TKS SA ("TKS'), producer of Ice Watches, to stop using packaging which it found to be too closely resembling the Lego Juris AS' ("Lego") registered Lego brick shape.

The Belgian company TKS sells watches under the trade mark Ice Watch. The watches are sold in cuboid boxes with four pegs on the top side. Lego claimed that the box infringed the shape of its Lego bricks which it had registered as a trade mark and that the use of the boxes with four pegs by TKS constituted a form of unfair competition prohibited under the Law of 6 April 2010 on market practices and the protection of the consumer (Wet van 6 april 2010 betreffende marktpraktijken en consumentenbescherming / Loi du 6 avril 2010 relative aux pratiques du marché et à la protection du consommateur - the "Law on Market Practices"). The Court of First Instance held that TKS' boxes infringed the Law on Market Practices and accorded the injunction