Hasbro jumps in the legal battle against Android tablets, sues Asus
When the words Transformer and Prime are put together I immediately think of the old TV series and recent Transformers movies. I had Transformers toys growing up and loved them. I’m actually very surprised that Hasbro waited this long to actually do anything about Asus’ tablet naming. When I first heard about the Asus Transformer series I immediately thought of the Hasbro toys and movies. I mean that’s the whole point of a good name right? To be immediately recognizable when heard. I wonder if maybe Hasbro was OK with Asus using Transformer in their device names, and probably would have been OK with someone naming a tablet simply Prime, but the two words Transformer and Prime together are obviously too much for Hasbro to put up with. Or maybe Optimus Prime simply complained too much and they finally decided to do something about it!
In a move that Apple has made all too familiar, Hasbro is requesting an injunction to stop sales of the Transformer Prime tablet. Hasbro wrote in an email statement: “Hasbro continues to aggressively protect its brands and products and the specific actions we are taking today against Asus underscores yet again Hasbro’s willingness to pursue companies who misappropriate our intellectual property for their own financial gain.” While I agree with Asus that Transformer is a great name for their line of tablets, it will be interesting to see what comes of this lawsuit.
[Moconews]
