Lego iMac G3 concept is unlikely to go anywhere, but it is very cute

Begging Apple to let another company make Macs for the first time since the '90s.

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[Grey Bird]

When I was young, there were just bricks, and making stuff up. These days, with the ubiquity of the bespoke kits, custom pieces are (for better or worse) a substantial amount of it all.

I have most of the LEGO from when I was a kid, which includes roof pieces including peaks, windows and these flat trees whose base will attach to the standard LEGO blocks even though they don't have the standard look to them. There's also a bunch of base plates, that are sizes I don't think they've made in decades.

 

[Grey Bird]

I'm not in that scene, but I recall there being a fan trading site (Bricklink?) where nearly all the pieces Lego has ever made are available, for a price.

Bricklink is becoming part of LEGO. The accounts are merging shortly. I don't know exactly when, but LEGO acquired the company.

(Edit) Also, Bricklink has been essentially a market place for people to sell LEGO they have to others.

 

[Grey Bird]

Seriously, tech readers really have to take 5 minutes and learn about trademark law.

That is an industrial design - which is part of trademark (and copyright) law. Under trademark law, a company that owns a trademark has a legal obligation to defend their trademarks. If they don't they can (and do) lose ownership of said trademark. That's why Xerox worked so hard to get people to stop calling photocopying "xeroxing" and Proctor-Gamble worked to get us to stop referring to tissues as "Kleenex".

If Apple didn't issue a C&D, they would be ceding permission for anyone to use that design, which could end up with them, also losing the "iMac" name and all sorts of other knock-on effects.

Trademark is also tied specifically to the industry being trademarked. (aka their market) Which is one reason why this exploration will not get a C&D as LEGO bricks are not computers. Also, this is a single rendering and not a marketed product, (Non-commercial use) so there are at least 2 good defenses against a trademark lawsuit right there. (Maybe you need to take that 5 minutes you mentioned since it took less than that for me to look up the wording for the defenses listed here.) If LEGO were to decide they might make this as a kit, they would probably either get buy-in from Apple or not make the product anyway.