LEGO Group announced recently a favorable decision issued in
September 2017 by the Shantou Intermediate People's Court, a
second tier city in China. LEGO Group succeeded for the first time
in China to win an anti-unfair competition case in relation to the
packaging of the LEGO Friends series.
Despite not written in the several comments and
congrats-articles I have read, I implied that the legal ground used
by the Chinese Court was art. 5.2 Anti-Unfair Competition Law (AUCL
1993 version). And then I decided to write this note to clarify why
LEGO vs BELA might be interesting to all of us (and not only to
LEGO Group).
Art. 5.2 AUCL 1993 reads as following: "An operator may not
adopt the following unfair means to carry to transactions in the
market and cause damage to competitors: (1) [...]; (2) using,
without authorization, the name, packaging or decoration peculiar
to famous goods or using a name, packaging or decoration similar to
that of famous goods, so that his
