Lego sued over Queer Eye set after designer claims it stole his design

Jan 17 2022
Written by Maggie Baska

The five members of Queer Eye have been recreated as a Lego set

An artist claimed that Lego made a “blatant copy” of a jacket he made for Antoni Porowski as part of the toy maker’s Queer Eye set. (YouTube/Lego)

Designer James Concannon is suing Lego over an alleged recreation of a custom leather jacket he made for Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski.

Lego announced its Queer Eye “Fab 5 Loft” set in September, with the Fab Five immortalised in plastic.

Antoni Porowski’s model wears a leather jacket similar to one that the food expert wore in Queer Eye’s fourth season, which was released on Netflix in July 2019.

According to Fashion Law, the designer of the jacket, James Concannon, is accusing Lego of copyright infringement, saying this was a “blatant copy” of his “original creation”.

The lawsuit alleges that the Lego figuring replicated the “unique placement, coordination and arrangement of the individual artist elements” of his jacket design.

Concannon claims that Netflix had previously asked permission to show Porowski wearing other clothes he had designed. They didn’t ask for permission to showcase the leather jacket, he said, but he simply “figured this was simply an oversight on Netflix’s part and was not disturbed”.

However, his lawsuit argues that he didn’t permit Lego to recreate the jacket and “commercially exploit his artwork for free” in its Queer Eye set.

He has also claimed that Lego didn’t offer to “compensate Concannon for copying his creation” or give him “any credit when it did copy his design”.

“Instead, it offered to send Concannon a free Fab 5 Loft set – which retails for $99.99 – for Concannon’s six-year-old son to play with, only to later revoke that offer, telling Concannon that Lego does not give away its products for free,” the lawsuit states.

Concannon is seeking compensation for “all damages [he] suffered and for any profits or gain by [Lego] that is attributable to” the alleged copyright infringement. This includes statutory damages, attorneys fees, expenses and costs, according to the lawsuit.

In a post on Instagram, Concannon claimed he had called “different reps at the company” and was told that Lego “loved creators”.