Logiqx
Veteran
I just stumbled across a recent story about Simba Toys GmbH challenging the trademark held by Rubik's Brand Limited in the EU courts, during November 2014. I know these stories occasionally pop up on the forum in relation to Seven Towns/V-Cubes/Dayan but I wasn't aware of the Simba case. A search for "Simba" doesn't return anything.
Here are a few links to give you a summary of the Simba case:
Bloomberg Business (News)
UDL (UK firm specialising in patents / trade marks)
American University (Intellectual Property Brief)
I hadn't seen formal descriptions of the Rubik's brand trademark until now so I went looking:
Rubik's Brand website (usage rights & legal)
Trademark
It's interesting how the trademark prohibits anything that looks like a Rubik's cube (externally), regardless of the internals. However it does specify the colours (exact tones) and it refers to black borders. If the worst comes to the worst then stickerless cubes look a lot different, "weird" according to my nephew.
Random thought... I wonder how the sales of Rubik's cubes compare to other brands on Amazon. Hopefully the general public buy official Rubik's merchandise thinking they'll be the best quality. I suspect we'll continue to see our favourite brands so long as Rubik's still get the majority of worldwide cube sales.
Here are a few links to give you a summary of the Simba case:
Bloomberg Business (News)
UDL (UK firm specialising in patents / trade marks)
American University (Intellectual Property Brief)
I hadn't seen formal descriptions of the Rubik's brand trademark until now so I went looking:
Rubik's Brand website (usage rights & legal)
Trademark
It's interesting how the trademark prohibits anything that looks like a Rubik's cube (externally), regardless of the internals. However it does specify the colours (exact tones) and it refers to black borders. If the worst comes to the worst then stickerless cubes look a lot different, "weird" according to my nephew.
Random thought... I wonder how the sales of Rubik's cubes compare to other brands on Amazon. Hopefully the general public buy official Rubik's merchandise thinking they'll be the best quality. I suspect we'll continue to see our favourite brands so long as Rubik's still get the majority of worldwide cube sales.
