LEGO wins court case against custom train maker

31/05/202431/05/2024 Rachael Davies 1651 Views 1 Comment

A Dutch court has ruled in favour of the LEGO Group in a case against a custom brick-built model maker, resulting in it ceasing operations.

Custom model company HA Bricks, run by Hein Alkema, has been ordered to stop selling brick-built models of real vehicles after being taken to court by the LEGO Group, as reported by Dutch News. Continuing to do so could result in fines of €1,000 per day, with the LEGO Group also able to claim fines of €500 for every set sold.

Alkema had claimed that he complied with the rules for selling custom LEGO sets but the court ruled that he had broken them by adapting the bricks, specifically by adding bearings to them. He was also ordered to pay €16,000 in legal costs.

The HA Bricks website has now been taken down and sales appear to have ceased. This is the second court case that has come down in the LEGO Group’s favour in recent months, after an EU court ruled in favour of protecting the LEGO Group’s design for its minifigure bases in Germany, ending a years-long dispute in favour of the Danish company.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by buying your LEGO sets using our affiliate links. Thanks!

Rachael Davies

I write about all the very best fandoms – and that means LEGO, of course. Spending so much time looking at and talking about LEGO sets is dangerous for my bank balance, but the LEGO shelves are thriving. You win some, you lose some.