A GThing Science Project

    Well, it's amazing I've lived in the States for all my life, and haven't been sued yet.  Well, my luck might be running out soon.  This time, it's our favorite multi-national conglomerate LEGO(tm) group who is wasting their time with papers full of legal mumbo jumbo trying to bully some kid (me) to obey their will.

    So here's the deal:  We have been selling T-Shirts on our band's website for quite some time that look like this: In case you can't tell, the image on the shirt is the same one as my avatar that I use on my website, gthing.net and on almost every post I write around livejournal and elsewhere.  I took the picture almost 2 years ago.

    So today I got a letter from cafepress (the people selling t-shirts for us) and LEGO's(tm) legal group "Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C."  Of course, you can read the letter for yourself here.  For those of you who don't want to read it, here are some highlights:

    "Notwithstanding our client's exclusive rights in the foregoing, our client has recently learned that, on the website www.cafepress.com, your company was offering for sale throughout the U.S., without our client's permission, t-shirts on which are depicted two-dimensional images of figures that are obvious imitations of our client's famous Minifigures, and that capture the overall appearance of such Minifigures.  Moreover, your listings incorporate the LEGO Mark in the descriptions.  Upon our request, and in accordance with its Intellectual Property Rights Policy, CafrePress.com has removed your listings from its site."

    Furthermore, they ask that I destroy all stock of such items, and provide them with proof that those items were destroyed.  I am to respond by June 27th or they will "have no alternative but to seek recourse in another forum."

    The cafepress email basically said "hey we don't care if you did it or not, but LEGO(tm) is bigger than you, so we're taking it down for now until you work it out with them."

    The funny thing is, the image is not even of a lego man at all.  Anyone (especially LEGO(tm)) can see the obvious difference upon inspection.  So I provide you, my reader, with a comparison of the two figures.

    TOFU MAN:  The Tofu man figure was purchased by my sister in Taiwan I given to me as a christmas gift.  It's roughyl three inches tall (much taller than a lego man).  The size is the most obvious difference.  The other obvious difference is the feetm which are rounded and have holes in the top, while lego man's are square and have a square hole in the bottom.  Tofu man's arms are much bigger, and oh yea Tofu man has a big freakin square head.  Observe:

You can click to see a larger picture.  Here is a lego man, so you can compare:

The pelvis is much different, and the arms are shaped quite a bit differently. 

    Also, the tofu man bears a logo from the company who made it (not lego).  Behold:

    If LEGO(tm) should be pissed at anyone, it's the Lynke toy company in Taiwan, but whatever.

    So for now, our t-shirts are no longer for sale, not that anyone was buying them anyway.  I will cooperate with LEGO, most likely - not because they're right, but because fighting it is pointless and would consume my life.  I will certainly keep you posted, though.

    Most of all, I'm just honored that LEGO(tm) took the time to single me out and beat me up a little bit.  I wonder if anyone over there listened to our music. 

*Lego is a registered trademark of whoever owns it, which is not me.