Customs Holds Three Tons of Lego-Style Toy Bricks
Serbia's Customs Administration halted import clearance of nearly 7,000 toys resembling Lego bricks over suspected intellectual property infringement. The inspection took place on August 4.
Officers from the Anti-Smuggling Department of the Customs Administration halted the import clearance process for three tons of children’s toys. They inspected the shipment at a warehouse on August 4, 2026. The goods were temporarily held over suspected infringement of intellectual property rights.
The consignment consists of nearly 7,000 toys resembling bricks made by the well known Lego brand. The Customs Administration disclosed details of the inspection on August 13, nine days later.
The hold is temporary
The statement says the goods were temporarily held. The import clearance process was interrupted, meaning it was not completed.
A hold means the shipment stays under customs supervision while the suspicion is checked. A permanent seizure is a separate decision that comes later, and the Customs Administration has not yet informed the public about one.
The shipment was not stopped at a border crossing. The goods were already in the warehouse, in the process of import clearance, when customs officers arrived for the inspection.
What the photo released by customs shows
A photo of the held goods was published along with the statement. It shows cardboard boxes stacked in the warehouse and individual sets taken out of them.
The largest part of the frame shows a box with a tank model in sand color, bearing a manufacturer name that is not Lego. Next to it are smaller boxes of the same type, with colorful figures on the packaging. A third part of the photo shows a box labeled locomotive, with an assembled model on the front.
All the boxes carry their own brand names. Their contents are plastic bricks that snap together, the same type used by the brand they are being compared to.
In the corner of the frame, a table with papers is visible, next to an official recording data from the shipment.
What the Customs Administration did not disclose
The statement does not name the importer. It does not say which city the warehouse is in, or which country the shipment came from.
There is no information on the estimated value of the goods. The Customs Administration also did not say whether misdemeanor or criminal proceedings have been opened against anyone, or what will happen next with the held toys.
Until the review is completed, no one is charged with a criminal offense. At this stage, the suspicion concerns the goods themselves and whether they were allowed to be imported.
Why does customs handle trademark protection?
Protecting intellectual property rights is part of the customs service’s regular work, alongside controlling excise goods, weapons and narcotics. Customs inspection is one of the points where goods bearing a disputed trademark can be stopped before reaching retail.
The Anti-Smuggling Department is an organizational unit of the Customs Administration, and this is exactly the kind of work it does. It also carries out inspections away from border crossings, in warehouses and storage facilities across the country, which is what happened here.
With children’s toys, the trademark question is not purely legal. Brick sets are sold under a name that buyers recognize, so the suspicion concerns what is written on the box, not only what is inside it.
Timeline of the inspection
The warehouse inspection took place on August 4, 2026. The Customs Administration’s statement was published on August 13, 2026.
Nine days passed between the two dates, and there is no publicly available information about the course of the review during that period. The Customs Administration did not explain why the details were released after so much time.
According to the latest information from the institution, the three tons of toys remain temporarily held.
