"Lego" brand name in application title

Hello,

I have an application with the name “Lego” in the app title and also uses a Lego Font. According to google guidelines brand infringement is forbidden. Do you think that it might give trouble? There are a lot of apps with the name “Lego” in the title on google play.

The official Lego group is using “LEGO®” in their app titles.

Thanks

Simple Question: Can you afford a lawsuit? I don’t think so :slight_smile: Legally LEGO could demand retroactive license fees. Can you afford that?

The “®” stands for “registered”. It is a world wide registered trademark. What do you think are you doing?

There were also a lot of murderers, but that still does it not make any more legal to murder someone :slight_smile: (bad example, but you get the point)

Concerning LEGO apps - you don’t know if they are licensed by LEGO

Oke thanks, interesting. On IOS an application is approved with a name like “(App Title) Lego Edition”. Would a similar name on google play be legal?

And what if you only use the word “Lego” in the app description?

You can use the word “lego” as descriptive element in the description - be sure to understand what that means. You are not allowed to use the word in any other manner, especially when user may think your app is in relation with lego you can encounter problems (this is called trademark fraud).

For Example, you may know “Lego Star Wars” or “Lego Harry Potter” - those developers/publishers pay A LOT of money to lego as license fee, and I mean A LOT.

I would - in any case - suggest to stay away from such well known trademarks without written permission of the trademark holder (you will not get any permission). Google will pull your app from the market in no time if ANYONE asks them to do so :slight_smile:

If apple approves such an app, they will most likely not be harmed - the dev on the other side is fully responsible for any infringement. If your game is badly made for example, lego can also sue you for compensation … for me that would be much too risky to even think about…

disclaimer: I am not an lawyer, I am just telling what I (think to) know

Maybe you are right and is the risk too high. For the search results it wouldn’t make that much difference i guess, as long as you can use the word lego in the description.

But on IOS an app with a name like “lego app title” is rejected, but a name like “app title lego edition” or “app title for lego” is approved.

That might suggest that they are responsible, why would they otherwise reject a title and not the other?

Because they may get contacted to put the title down - why should they risk that extra work (and bad reputation), when it is obvious? :slight_smile:

All I say is, what you can expect in the worst case. Trademarking Law is more complex, so as long as you do not have a lawyer dedicated to this matter, giving you a strictly “go”, don’t do it. Trademarking Issues can hit hard nowadays.

Even with no suitcase, google may pull your app and ban you from the market :slight_smile: (in case of a trademark infringement)