Lego has registered its building blocks and figures as trademarks. The defendant sells kits made from Lego bricks to build trains. These kits contain original Lego bricks, but some have been modified. Ball bearings have been inserted into the bricks to help the trains run better, and logos of third parties (such as the Dutch railways, NS) have been added.
Lego objects to this. Rightly so—exhaustion does not apply if the condition of the product has been altered or deteriorated. The insertion of ball bearings has deteriorated the condition of the bricks. The quality of the plastic has been compromised, and the bricks no longer meet safety standards, especially with regards to children’s toys and the reported presence of lead in the ball bearings. The same applies to the printing of the third-party logos, as it’s unclear which materials or printing techniques were used (e.g. lead-based ink). Lego’s prohibition is therefore upheld.
