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Comment by rokhayakebe | Hacker News Reader

Does LEGO have some sort of patent on "legos"? In other words are other companies allowed to build similar kits?

Any patent LEGO might have claimed on the basic brick design must have expired long ago.

MegaBlocks makes bricks that are advertised as compatible with LEGO bricks, but in my experience the tolerance is just a little bit off.

We have some Mega Blocks here and yes, they do work with Lego but they don't quite have as good a feel. Also there are some significant differences, like the flatter plates look to be half-height instead of 1/3 height which would cause problems if you intermix the two!

Yeah, they sorta work, but even my 4yo can immediately tell a mega block from a real Lego. They've all been banished from the logo bin.

Megablocks are awful. They stick together for a second, then pop off. You end up with cracks everywhere and pieces falling apart. Do not buy...

Not anymore:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lego-loses-t...

It used to be no one could manufacture bricks that were compatible with real legos, but now, apparently, you can.

So if Lego insists on creating only crap merchandise prefab kits (like they have for at least the last ten years or so), someone else can step up and produce something a little more, well, Lego-y.

I'm pretty sure they have design patents that prevent other companies from building bricks that are an exact copy. But design patents, as shown from Apple vs. Samsung, are a positively grey area. It's not clear if "compatible" parts would be allowed, for example.

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