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September 07, 2005

LEGO My LEGOS - The Significance of "S"

You have most certainly heard of "LEGOS." They have long been one of my favorite toys. However, when you try to go to the website legos.com, you will quickly find that you have made a mistake. A message sponsored by "LEGO" appears to inform you that the product is called '"LEGO bricks or toys" and not "LEGOS."' The site then directs you to the proper site, lego.com.

According to a techdirt post, this is a little unsettling. The post states that the website "gives you a lecture on how to properly spell their name."

Why would LEGO be so protective of this mark? I cannot say. The company website provided little explanation outside of the origin of the name: 'The name LEGO comes from the Danish words "Leg Godt," which means "Play well." In Latin it means "I put together."'

I found a federally registered trademark for "LEGGO'S," but it was for frozen food (not likely confused with interlocking plastic building blocks). My best guess is that this message is an attempt to avoid genericism. However, the avoidance of using an "S" on the end of "LEGO" seems a little weird to me. It is common to pluralize a word by adding an "S," and "LEGO" in my mind refers to a single "LEGO brick." Therefore, multiple "LEGO bricks" would still be "LEGOS." Maybe I'm missing something about why we are not supposed to use the simple term "LEGOS" instead of the much more complex "multiple LEGO brand bricks or toys."

UPDATE 9/7/05: An "expert" has helped me understand a little more by pointing me to the part of the LEGO company website that covers this better. It states 'If the LEGO trademark is used at all, it should always be used as an adjective, not as a noun.' I guess I should have realized that trademark always refers to the source and not the product itself. I believe this is the second law of trademarks. The first law of trademarks is trademarks arise out of USE. Even so, it is still common to use trademarks as nouns, with the intent to identify the source. Source is often implicit in the noun itself. For example, people do not say they drive a "Ford brand car," they say they drive a "Ford." This use leaves little question about the source of the "Ford." 

Posted by Melody Wirz at 10:11 AM.
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