Lego impressed the crowds at CES in Las Vegas this week with the rollout of its new LEGO SMART Play™. The announcement represents the next evolution of Lego’s platform strategy.
Brilliant analysis of how LEGO is leveraging mesh topology to create emergent interacitons! The BrickNet protocol eliminating the need for a central hub is really clver because it sidesteps the typical single-point-of-failure issues we see in IoT ecosystems. I've worked on similar decentralized systems and the challenge is always balancing encryption overhead with low-latency responsiveness, especially when nodes scale. The screen-free approach also makes a lot of sense for preserving that tactile play experience while still adding digital depth.
Paul Belleflamme has pointed out that there is an important IP angle associated with Lego’s platform strategy. SMART Play and SMART Bricks gives Lego an entirely new technical layer to patent, shifting its IP moat from the basic plastic geometry to the invisible electronics, sensing, and networking that make those bricks “smart.” Lego has lost its patent protections around the classic stud-and-tube bricks. Competitors can legally copy the geometry. SMART Play reintroduces protectable functionality by embedding a custom ASIC, sensor suite, coils, and a proprietary positioning and networking stack inside a standard-footprint 2×4 brick. Lego states that SMART Play/SMART Brick technology is covered by “no fewer than 25” patents or “more than 20 patented world-firsts,” spanning the ASIC architecture, magnetic positioning, BrickNet wireless protocol, charging, and sensing methods.
Thank you for this excellent analysis, Peter. Here is a complementary piece that discusses how LEGO’s two‑pronged IP strategy shapes network effects, long‑run profitability, and the public’s interest. https://paulbelleflamme.substack.com/p/smart-play-smart-strategy-lego-openness?r=cyw0z
LEGO taught me it’s okay to build things that don’t last. Life keeps reminding me of the same thing.
https://open.substack.com/pub/antoniogarciacancino/p/we-built-it-just-to-break-it-and?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=648maa
Brilliant analysis of how LEGO is leveraging mesh topology to create emergent interacitons! The BrickNet protocol eliminating the need for a central hub is really clver because it sidesteps the typical single-point-of-failure issues we see in IoT ecosystems. I've worked on similar decentralized systems and the challenge is always balancing encryption overhead with low-latency responsiveness, especially when nodes scale. The screen-free approach also makes a lot of sense for preserving that tactile play experience while still adding digital depth.
Paul Belleflamme has pointed out that there is an important IP angle associated with Lego’s platform strategy. SMART Play and SMART Bricks gives Lego an entirely new technical layer to patent, shifting its IP moat from the basic plastic geometry to the invisible electronics, sensing, and networking that make those bricks “smart.” Lego has lost its patent protections around the classic stud-and-tube bricks. Competitors can legally copy the geometry. SMART Play reintroduces protectable functionality by embedding a custom ASIC, sensor suite, coils, and a proprietary positioning and networking stack inside a standard-footprint 2×4 brick. Lego states that SMART Play/SMART Brick technology is covered by “no fewer than 25” patents or “more than 20 patented world-firsts,” spanning the ASIC architecture, magnetic positioning, BrickNet wireless protocol, charging, and sensing methods.