Hey guys, so as you know, a couple of months ago, LEGO announced that they would be suing Lepin, obviously, over their copyright infringements. Lepin has been stealing LEGO's set ideas, their customers, their profits for years now, and LEGO has just finally had enough of it. And as of last night, November 5th of 2018, LEGO has officially announced the infringement case win against Lepin. That's right, LEGO has won the case against Lepin in the Chinese courts.
All this information is from TheBrickFan, this is where I always go to get all of my news. for lego so definitely go ahead and check them out this is not sponsored by any means i just want to make sure that you guys know where i'm getting my information from so the courts have ruled in favor of the lego group against four different companies who have infringed on multiple copyrights obviously lepin is one of the biggest ones who have not only taken actual designs from lego themselves copying the instructions and the sets and the minifigures pretty much 100 but they also have taken different mocks from the community i believe to my knowledge actually has a ucs vetter set that actually is just a mock made by somebody else that they just took So, Lepin's actually a pretty scummy company. This is something that we've known for a long time. But these companies are being held accountable for copying artwork of 18 different LEGO sets and minifigures, as well as using unfair competition acts.
Now, there are two parts that they are being held accountable for. Number one, the 18 different LEGO sets and minifigures, which is basically the fact that Lepin has blatantly, obviously, part for part, taken LEGO sets officially and kind of... deconstructed them making the exact same instructions and parts list all that kind of stuff and exactly copying what lego has done with their lego sets and the other part the using unfair competition acts to my knowledge is basically the idea that they are actually promoting themselves as lego products and not necessarily their own company court has ordered that lepin immediately cease making these specific 18 lego sets but as we know there are many many more lego sets that lepin makes that were not a part of this specific case Now the CEO of LEGO has officially spoken out saying that when children and shoppers choose a LEGO product they expect the highest quality and the safest play experience. We cannot have them being misled in any way. While we welcome fair competition, if anyone misuses our intellectual property and seeks to take advantage of our consumer's trust, we will take action.
Now what exactly does this mean for Leppin and other companies that actually tried to? um, mislead LEGO customers into thinking that their product is the same, if not better, while also simultaneously taking that intellectual property in the designs of the LEGO Group. 2017, there are actually two different cases where LEGO actually won their case, similarly to this one with Leppin, one in October and one in July, and now in November of 2018. I think this is definitely setting a huge, huge precedent for more ideas from Leppin.
to think that they can actually take from LEGO. They're paying a lot of money in this court case, which is obviously going to be a huge deterrent. However, we all know that there are many more than 18 sets that Letpin has quote-unquote created on their websites or in their retailers that are blatant copies of LEGO.
I think this is a huge hit to Letpin. They're losing a lot of money. I honestly can't imagine that they're making that much because their sets are pretty trash and anyone who knows LEGO will hopefully stay away from Letpin as much as possible.
Another announcement that actually came today on November 6th which is actually a pretty big follow-up to this whole court case, is that LEGO is going to be releasing China region exclusive sets. Now, in the recent months, LEGO has been making moves to open official stores, official retail brand yellow stores in China, obviously to deter people from continuing with Leppin. And that in combination with having Leppin to immediately cease making 18 different sets, as well as these new China region exclusives, I do firmly believe that the end of Leppin is coming very soon. LEGO will be releasing some China region exclusive sets to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and it will be the first time that the company has ever done something like this to a specific country.
There have never been a specifically American exclusive. There has been instances where Europe has had exclusives and America has not. However, there's not been a specific country exclusive up until this point. So this, the China region exclusives, in combination with the massive fines and court win, Against lepin as well as lego making very very big moves to open up official stores in China I think the end of lepin is very near. What do you guys think down below?
Definitely? Let me know It's a huge W for Lego. I'm very happy because lepin is a scummy company I'd never want to ever touch their product, but once again guys Thank you all so much for watching and I'll see you all later.
Peace