Hasbro Sues Asus Over Transformer Prime Name

[Narsil]

As stupid (and it is) as the lawsuit is, Hasbro (and ASUS for that matter) has plenty of lawyers on retainer. If they don't give the lawyers something to do (but not more than the retainer covers), they lose the money they've paid to keep the lawyers on retainer. I would assume it doesn't take a lawyer too much time to create and file a patent/trademark infringement argument. On the other hand, I further assume that it takes quite a bit more time, energy, and money to defend against said infringement filing.

It's all a form of supposedly "civilized" warfare.

Want to see this kind of idiocy reduced dramatically? Push for tort reform wherein the loser in a civil court case pays the court/lawyer fees of the winner. People and companies would hesitate to sue if they were not very sure of a victory.

 

[droidtom]

You have to admit prime is one of the characters in transformers lol

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Narsil]

I'm not a huge Transformers fan but, in the Transformers world, isn't "Prime" a title, kind of like "President" or "Prime Minister?" I am not aware of any characters who are named "Prime." I thought "Optimus Prime" was like saying "President Obama."

That being said, I have no doubt that ASUS did not come up with the name "Transformer Prime" in a cultural vacuum. I'm sure the similarity is intentional. However, as has been said, trademarks used to be reserved for competitive products not simply the same name. The ex-Israeli man, Mr. Nissan (Nissan is both a Hebrew personal name and the name of one of the Jewish months), found out when he named his computer-assembly company, Nissan Computers, that trademark infringement is no longer restricted to competitive industries.

 

[nikecar]

You have to admit prime is one of the characters in transformers lol

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

No, its OPTIMUS Prime.

the Primes were a class of Autobots, like royalty, but they had their own names. So you could argue Prime was either a last name or part of the title: Optimus of Prime... or something like that. But Optimus is his name.

What will Asus do to the eletric company? Sorry sir, our transformer, err that box that handles power down conversions, blew.

 

[spillner]

This is one of the few times where a lawsuit really has a case. Transformer Prime is deff a rip off of the transformers and Hasbro has every right to be upset. That being the case I hope they lose because I want to be able to tell people I have a Transfomer Prime