FabSwingers.com forum: LEGO's dirty little secret

By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

Hands up anyone who thinks LEGO was invented by those delightful Danish funsters?

Yep, me too. I thought it was their idea and sprang from that Scandinavian purity of mind and spirit.

Turns out they actually nicked the idea from a Brit and they made their fortune by neglecting to pay royalties to the originator.

From Wikipedia:

'In 1939 Hilary Page applied for a patent for 'Toy Building Blocks'. In this and subsequent patents he described hollow bricks with 4 and 8 studs on top. These 'Self Locking Bricks' were manufactured as a Hilary Page 'Sensible' Toy, made in England after the 1939-45 war.

Lego copied the design of the Kiddicraft brick after examining a sample given to them by the British supplier of an injection moulding machine they had purchased. Page was never aware of this, and his daughter has stated that she "was relieved that my father never knew about Lego before he died.” Lego eventually acquired the rights to Kiddicraft in 1981 prior to beginning litigation against Tyco.'

Apparently Tyco had the nerve to produce a very similar product to Lego and not want to pay royalties!