You may have heard by now that LEGO recently attempted to have a domain owned by brothers Gavin (age 15) and Grayson (age 11) transferred to Lego. The domain legoworkshop.com was the site where the two boys have pictures of the things they built with LEGO and instructions on how to build them. LEGO filed a complaint seeking the domain name.
Surprisingly, the boys then opposed LEGO in the proceeding and won with the domain name arbitrator deciding that the site was a genuine non-commercial fan site and, therefore, LEGO failed to establish two key elements of its case, that the boys did not have rights or legitimate interests in the domain and that they registered the domain in bad faith.
Leaving aside whether LEGO is a trade mark bully or not, there is a bigger issue here. What sort of damage does this type of action have on the LEGO brand? Although some may argue, LEGO is a toy for children. It says a lot that a company whose major customer would be children and the parents of those children would choose to take this type of action against two youngsters who want nothing more than to share their love of LEGO.
Branding is much more than just one or more trade marks. It is the totality of how the world (or just your customers) see your business. A major function of effective branding is to establish a connection in the mind of a customer or potential customer between the brand and something of value to the customer. This can take many forms including prestige, pride, monetary value or an emotional connection.
In my opinion, actions like the one that LEGO took were poorly considered and did damage to their brand. The more people that hear about this story, the more that will side with the two boys and see LEGO as a bully. And that is not good brand management!!!