Hasbro goes to court over Asus’s Transformer Prime tablet

December 22, 2011 By Andy Boxall

Hasbro has filed a lawsuit against Asus for its use of the Transformer Prime name on its latest tablet.

When Asus announced the Eee Pad Transformer Prime in November, many saw the name as a lawsuit waiting to happen, and sure enough, Hasbro has filed a complaint with a Los Angeles court. The toy company is seeking damages and an injunction against Asus.

To show just how annoyed Hasbro is they’ve sent a statement, rather light in punctuation, to PaidContent.org which reads: “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.”

Hasbro makes the range of shape-shifting robot toys called Transformers, but seeing as the Prime isn’t Asus’s first tablet to use the Transformer name — and the TF101 didn’t anger them to the point of going to court — there has to be more than meets the eye regarding the latest version.

Of course there is, and it should be obvious to anyone who grew up in the 80s, or has been to the cinema in the last three or four years. Adding “Prime” recalls Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, and as his name is often shortened to simply Prime you can begin to see why Hasbro thought enough was enough.

With tech companies lining up to sue or be sued, it seems odd that nobody at Asus knew this, or bothered to check, before going to market with a new product. All is set to be revealed in Hasbro v. Asus International.

Showing 3 comments

Philip Palmer at 10:57pm 22nd December 2011 They are trying to make money with something that is not theirs. Seems pretty cut and dry to me.
Benjamin Kubilus at 10:44pm 22nd December 2011 I think most of what's been going on lately is a bunch of B.S. However, it does seem as thought Hasbro left well enough alone up to this point. It's as if they were just trying to push their buttons to see how far they could go. I think it's fairly obvious that they were trying to make money by connecting it to the Autobots. If they're making money off of Hasbro's work, then I think it's only right that they get their fair share.
Stephan Brunet at 10:37pm 22nd December 2011 They are just pissed they never thought about it themselves. I find this copyright bullshit is starting to go to far. Next thing you know we wont even be able to mention a movie or game without having to pay a "PRIME" royalty fee.