Hasbro Sued ASUS Over Robotic Names

Aside from the arrival of stronger, better and faster smart-phones, this season also seems like one for lawsuits. The news of Apple's recent win against HTC in a patent case is no isolated fight. Other phone makers have also been at each other's throats before patent courts, trying to get back what was allegedly 'stolen' from them. And the most interesting yet is Hasbro suing ASUS over Transformer Prime.

In time for the release of the world's first Tegra 3 tablet, Hasbro filed a lawsuit against ASUS for using the 'Transformer Prime' name, and alleged that the said electronics company violated their brand copyright. It added that ASUS misappropriated the famous Transformer and Optimus Prime franchise for financial gain. Hasbro sought for damages and a temporary stoppage on sales and exports of the Transformer Prime tablet. This lawsuit apparently makes a bit of sense.

But even though Hasbro can argue that ASUS is riding on the popularity of the Transformers franchise to sell tablets, it may have a really hard time proving so. US copyright law allows companies to use similarly named products, that is, if they are not of the same industry. For example, a clothing company can use the trademark of a computer company.

However the lawsuit turns out, hopefully the Transformer Prime will not change into some lame name.