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Comment by lostgame | Hacker News Reader

I smell a lawsuit, or at least a C&D.

I used to work for LEGO. They have more lawyers than I've ever seen anywhere else.

When I read the title, I honestly thought this was an official LEGO thing. This is exactly why it's important for a company like LEGO to protect its trademark.

I realize this is just an homage to LEGO and I'm sure they know and appreciate that. But they still need to defend their trademark. If they don't, anybody could just use their name for whatever they wanted - even things they DO NOT want to be associated with.

I thought this was some kind of project for automating LEGO deconstruction down to the smallest possible bricks (hardware).

Exactly - this is what happened to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrickOS (previously legOS).

BrickOS is an alternative OS for the Lego Mindstorms kit.

I'd argue this is worse, as it directly relates to LEGO's products, but LEGO is just very protective of their brand name in general.

Especially considering LEGOs products in the beginner electronics /robotics space.

There actually used to be a "legOS" project (homebrew firmware for the original Lego Mindstorms) and they were politely but firmly asked to change their name.

https://news.lugnet.com/robotics/rcx/legos/?n=2641

I would've suggested footOS, after considering that armOS might also upset ARM.

I'll call your LEGO lawyers and raise you Disney lawyers.

Let's not forget IBM's Nazguls

I've just never worked for Disney. ;)

Also, Nintendo.

Games Workshop is another example of lawyer-happy company, albeit on a smaller scale.

Trademark infringement requires a bit more than just using the name (likelihood of confusion is one of the tests), but given that companies need to aggressively defend their trademark to keep it they might file a suit anyway.

Winning in court sometimes only requires a bit more money than the other party has to spend.

is that really true though for one of the world's most recognizable brands with a unique name?

I get how that would happen if a company used the name commercially, but wouldn’t this be classed under fair use as long as the usage was non commercial? Anyways, IANAL.

(INAL as well, but as far as I know:) Trademark fair use is different from copyright fair use. In short trademark fair use is if you use it to reference the original (e.g., "compatible with WindowsTM") or if its not used as a trademark to describe your service. (WD-40 example I found used "inhibitor" while "THE INHIBITOR" was trademarked)

LEGOFUCKYOURSELF-OS you could argue the le is french :D

Wrong! In 1978, LEGO's major patent expired in the US (20 years after it was filed in 1958).

Patents are entirely unrelated to trademarks. I very much doubt that an operating system would be able to infringe on a patent for interconnecting plastic blocks.

An operating system called "LegoOS" might infringe on the trademark of a plastic block company called "LEGO" (though one of the tests is "likelihood of confusion" and it would be hard to confuse the two).

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