The Lego Exemption - EU Registered Design Law For Modular Systems Explored Again.

In my co-authored article of 11th November 2011, I reported on the judgement from the General Court of the European Union in respect of an appeal filed by Lego A/S on invalidity proceedings brought against their registered design number EM1664368-0006. I commented at the end that it was a shame that the ultimate relevance of Article 8(3) CDR was not considered on this case. However, the case had already been decided on the principle that the invalidity applicant, Delta Sport Handelskontor GmbH, had not established that all of the features of appearance were solely dictated by its technical function. As a result the invalidity proceedings appeared to have failed.

However, that was not the end of the story...