Hasbro lost a lawsuit regarding its Transformers brand versus Asus.
In the latter parts of December last year, Hasbro, the toymaker filed charges in the federal court of California claiming that Asus, the tablet maker, creates confusion among consumers by combining the names Transformer and Optimus Prime in its Transformer Prime device. Hasbro accused the tablet maker of labeling its tablet the Transformer Prime so that consumers can associate it with the well known Transformers children's toy and eventually purchase it.
But, a judge refused to approve the request of the toymaker to file a temporary restraining order to Asus to be able to stop it from selling their tablets under the Transformer Prime label.
In the ruling, the judge said that the Eee Pad Transformer or Transformer Prime as a name is not gimmicky nor is it similar in function or use with the Transformer toy of Hasbro. In the same account, he also gave an in depth description of the character of the toy robot.
The ruling of the judge said that Hasbro was not able to clearly establish that consumers are confused with its product and that of Asus. Moreover, he said that Hasbro was not able to provide strong evidence that it will suffer irreparable damage in case Asus continues to sell its Transformer Prime tablet.
Hasbro's representative expressed disappointment with the court's decision.
He told PaidContent that the toymaker company strongly disagrees with the initial ruling of the court to allow Asus to continue to sell its tablet under the Transformers Prime name. But, the company said that they are pleased with the judge's and court's opinion that the Transformer and Transformer Prime labels are strong. They further said that as the case continues with its trial, Hasbro will keep on pursuing the matter actively and will take the needed steps to guard its established and globally known marks.
