Counterfeit LEGO seller given fine and two year suspended sentence

In South Korea, a seller of fake LEGO products, including Lepin, has been convicted and fined along with a suspended sentence.

A seller of counterfeit LEGO products given a two year suspended sentence of ten months in prison and a fine of KRW 10 million (around DKK 56,000).

In South Korea, the Seoul Southern District Court found the defendant guilty of being in possession of 1,348 LEPIN, LELE and SY branded clone products. After a raid by the Special Judicial Police of the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism last year, the knock-offs were seized. As well as selling them in a physical store, the defendant sold 2,627 clone brand products online in the space of a year.

“We appreciate the South Korean Courts and authorities for taking such a strong stance on intellectual property protection and enforcement,” said Robin Smith, LEGO VP General Counsel for China and Asia Pacific, following the conviction. “We will continue our efforts to ensure that parents and children are able to make informed choices when they are buying toy products, and that they are not misled by attempts by companies to make toy products appear as something that they are not.

“We will continue to take action against companies who infringe our copyrights in order to protect the reputation of our much-loved brand.”

This follows the LEGO Group winning a copyright case against a clone brand in China.

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