Best-Lock

Best-Lock Construction Toys is a brand of plastic building bricks that are compatible with Lego. Best-Lock Ltd is based in Colne, Lancashire, England.

Products

Best-Lock offers different sized blocks including Standard Blocks, Junior Blocks (young children 2-5), and Baby Blocks (For kids 0-2). Themes for Standard Blocks include Town sets (Police, Fire and Construction), military, pirates, farming, and Kimmy (Best-Lock sets made for females). Licensed sets include The Terminator and Stargate SG-1 themes.

Legal challenges

Best-Lock has been involved with multiple legal cases involving Lego. The defeated a patent challenge from Lego in 2004. In a further case in 2009, Lego was denied trademark protection for the shape of its bricks; however, in 2015, Best-Lock lost two cases in the European Court in which they attempted to deny Lego trademark protection on the shape of its minifigs.

Merger

Best-Lock and Cobi, a Polish building block manufacturer with a strong presence in Eastern Europe and Asia, announced a merger on February 2, 2006. The merger has since yielded co-branded building block toys. Toys are still sold under the separate labels Best-Lock and Cobi, but many Cobi sets appear in North American retailers such as Toys R' Us and Amazon.com under the Best-Lock brand.