In 2018, Warner Bros. made waves when it announced a partnership with Kano, a U.K. kid-friendly coding firm, to release a Harry Potter coding wand that brought the magical world of the franchise to life.
But five years later, Alex Klein, the cofounder and CEO of Kano, alleges that Warner Bros., which controls the intellectual property of the Harry Potter brand, has infringed on Kano’s technology to develop a new smart magic wand.
In an interview with Fast Company, Klein alleges that after discussions with Warner Bros. fell flat, the company took the intellectual property belonging to Kano—including its inventions, trade secrets, and assets protected by patents—to launch a competing wand, called the Harry Potter Magic Caster Wand.
“Unfortunately we have to be open about what’s taken place here,” says Klein. “Which is a pretty messed up scenario for a small company: to be really ripped off by a big company.”
In response to the allegations outlined by Klein, a Warner Bros. spokesperson told Fast Company, “The claims made by Kano are without merit.” In a separate letter sent to Klein on January 11, the studio’s legal representatives wrote: “WBD’s development of the Magic Caster Wand has nothing to do with Kano’s allegedly confidential information and did not involve any improper use of Kano’s allegedly confidential information.”
Founded by Klein, Yonatan Raz-Fridman and Saul Klein in 2013, Kano made its name and attracted tens of millions of dollars in funding by developing a series of kid-friendly, build-your-own computer kits that were meant to be as simple, intuitive, and fun to use as Lego. A 2013 crowdfunding campaign ended up being the fastest to hit its goal in the U.K. at the time, according to Klein, with endorsements from Mike Bloomberg and Boris Johnson. (Barack Obama even had a Kano computer in the White House.) It wasn’t long before the computer was stocked in retailers like Toys “R” Us and Target. “We had this complete inventor’s dream scenario,” says Klein.
Around that time, Kano developed a new range of peripherals, which were gesture and motion sensors that could teach kids how to code by moving their hands through the air. “The software would detect what you would do and then make something happen on the screen,” says Klein.
