Danish toy giant Lego on Wednesday lost a European court case in a trademark dispute over its famous plastic bricks.

The ruling will allow competitors to continue to market products similar to Lego's iconic brick in the 27 European Union nations.

The European Court of First Instance threw out Lego's challenge to an earlier decision by the EU's trademarks agency.

The case pits Lego against its biggest rival in the children's building blocks arena, Mega Brands of Canada, which brought the case to have Lego's trademark ruleed invalid.

A Lego spokeswoman said the company would appeal to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice.

"We are of course disappointed," spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said.

"We are going to appeal ... We are at Lego convinced in our belief that we are right in our views on trademark legislation," she added.

Lego had gained an EU trademark on the blocks' shape in 1999. However five years later the EU trademark agency scrapped the Lego trademark of a studded toy brick.

While Lego, 50 years old this year, argued that the knobs on the top of its play bricks were "highly distinctive" the European court ruled that the mere shape of a product could not be registered by trademark.

The court found that Lego's claim "must be rejected" and Lego was ordered to pay the court costs.

what do you think? (kinda "childy" topic, but quite contradictive)