Part 6: IP vs Non-IP

IP (Intellectual Property) versus Non-IP is a post I decided to add after a number of people were curious about what the different outcomes between the two might be. In this post, I'll look at what percentage of submissions are IP/Non-IP and the corresponding differences it might make in Staff Picks, reaching 10K, and ultimately getting produced.

Read below for the difference in IP versus Non-IP as well as my thoughts on the two. Otherwise, feel free to skip to Question 1.

IP, short for Intellectual Property, just means some other organization (usually a company) owns the rights to a design, names, images, characters, etc. A company, such as LEGO Group, must negotiate with the rights owner if they want to produce anything that is covered by these rights. This involves lots of lawyers, legal papers, and of course, money.

A prime example of this is LEGO and Star Wars. The Star Wars brand is under the Disney umbrella, therefore LEGO Group had to negotiate a deal with Disney, or their IP representatives, prior to being able to produce anything! Part of that deal granted LEGO Group the exclusive right to produce brick building sets based on the Star Wars theme until such time either company decided to no longer maintain the agreement.

Some brands eagerly license almost anything with their name on it from bath soap to cooking pots to swimwear. What's more, they'll license to virtually anyone so long as they can pay the required fee. Disney and Warner Bros. fall into this category. Other brands virtually never grant a license no matter how much money is offered. Cartoonist Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, has turned down millions of dollars from potential licensing and remains steadfast that he will never consider it as in his belief 'cartoon strips should stand as an art form on their own.'

The advantage of submitting a LEGO Idea based on an IP is it's typically well-known and most likely, has a pre-existing fan base. A disadvantage is the company usually maintains the right to greenlight or turn down anything that doesn't fit its image. For example, in today's world Disney is never going to authorize someone wanting to produce a Mickey Mouse ashtray for cigarettes (knock offs don't count). LEGO also follows this mantra quite closely. They don't want their name attached to anything considered controversial or not family friendly. This means you'll never see a Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday Night at Freddy's LEGO set. Another disadvantage to IP can be the additional time that securing licensing takes.

On the other hand, non-IP is virtually a world of anything goes... well, so long as it meets LEGO Groups brand as stated above. You want trains... submit trains, you want buildings... submit buildings. So long as no one owns the rights to what you're submitting, no licensing is required which can be a great advantage. However, a disadvantage is there may not be a built-in fan base for your submission. For example, creating a set based on a fictitious "Gary the Plumber" character is going to require a great deal of work to get people interested while submitting a modular building would start off with a substantial fan interest.

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Click here for a popup on what makes up the data:  

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*Note on a change in the dataset for this post only:

To answer the question 1 below, I used a sampling of months, from the dataset previously described, to determine the submitted percentages of IP/Non-IP. Why? 12,188 submissions were way too many for me to go through and try and categorize as one or the other. Instead, I randomly took a month from each calendar year 2020-2023 resulting in four total months. (I did not include the month of December as a possible selection given its slant towards Christmas themes which could throw off the numbers). The months were as follows:

• June 2020 - 769 submissions
• July 2021 - 212 submissions
• September 2022 - 235 submissions
• February 2023 - 1,216 submissions
• Total submissions = 2,432

Question 2 uses the same data as Part 4 - Staff Picks did.

Question 3 uses the same data as Part 3 - The B-I-G 10K did.

Question 4 uses the same data as Part 5 - After 10K.

So, without further ado, let's look at IP versus Non-IP.

Question 1

What percentage of submissions are IP and Non-IP?

Items of note:

• There are far fewer IP submissions (21%; 1 out of 5) compared to Non-IP (79%).
• Therefore, going forward to the next questions (Staff Picks/10K/Produced), we would expect the same percentages if neither IP or Non-IP were being preferred.

Question 1 data:

Question 2

What percentage of submissions receiving Staff Picks are IP/Non-IP?

Items of note:

• We can see that the percentage of the total made up of IP has increased from 21% of submissions (question 1) to 34% of Staff Picks!
• This means that for a given IP submission, it is more likely to result in a Staff Pick when compared to a given Non-IP.

Question 2 data:

Question 3

What percentage of submissions reaching 10K are IP/Non-IP?

Items of note:

• We can see that the percentage of the total made up of IP has increased from 21% of submissions (question 1) to 40% of those reaching 10K!
• Similar to Staff Picks, for a given IP submission it is more likely to result in a reaching 10K when compared to a given Non-IP.

Question 3 data:

Question 4

What percentage of submissions that are actually produced as sets are IP/Non-IP?

Items of note:

• Finally, similar to Staff Picks and Reaching 10K, the percentage of the total produced and made up of IP has increased to 44% of submissions compared to 21% of the total submitted (question 1).

Question 4 data:

Question 5

What do the milestones/phases look like for IP vs Non-IP?

Items of note:

• IP out-performs Non-IP at every stage of a submission's journey by making up a continuously larger portion of the total.
• IP is twice as likely to reach 10K and be produced versus Non-IP (IP at initial submission is 21% while at Produced it has reached 44% of the total)
• A possible reason, but not explored here, is the familiarity people have with a given IP as well as the built-in larger fan base who would tend to support it.

Question 5 data:

Question 6

How does the IP/Non-IP ratio of LEGO Ideas produced as sets compare to the ratio of all LEGO sets?

 

Items of note:

• Unbelievably, the two percentages ended up identical!
• Thus, while IP submissions initially make up a smaller percentage of LEGO Ideas, the actual production percentage is the same as for all LEGO sets produced.

Question 6 data:

* Note: the 'All Sets' data consists of all publicly available sets from 2020 through 2023 excluding things such as baseplates, Classic bricks, gear, minifigs, accessory/expansion packs, employee gifts, small-bagged items, etc.

Factoids - questioning the obvious

• Anyone wanting to categorize 12,188 product ideas would have to be crazy.
• Anyone asking ME to categorize 12,188 ideas would have to be insane!

Most common IP  & Non-IP

• We'll determine this in the word and phrase frequency analysis in the next post.

up next: Word and Phrase Usage