Rubik's Cube on appeal: copyright on design

Spin Master markets the well-known Rubik's Cube. Goliath offers another "cube-shaped game object" on the market, the NexCube. Does the latter infringe? How far does the scope of copyright protection for the famous Rubik's Cube extend?

This is the appeal of summary judgment.

According to Spin Master, there are three different copyrights on the Rubik's Cube: (1) on the three-dimensional stature of the cube, (2) on the game concept of the Rubik's Cube and (3) on the design of the cube including its colors and grid.

The Court of Appeal rejects (in Dutch) the first two claimed copyrights, but assumes that the design of the cube is indeed copyrighted. This is in line with an earlier ruling of July 13, 2021 (in Dutch). The width, color and thickness of the grid and the colors red, green, yellow, blue, white and orange of the Rubik's Cube give it an original character. To that extent, the cube is copyrighted. But the overall impressions of the Rubik's Cube, on the one hand, and the NexCube, on the other, do not sufficiently agree. Still no copyright infringement, then.

Moïra Truijens