As long as Asus doesn't discontinue their line of computers, I'll be safe. *Types this from an Asus laptop*

 

You know, I always thought that the Transformer Prime pad is a joint venture between Asus and Hasbro.

It is one thing calling the tablet Transformer, but now Transformer Prime, while Transformers Prime TV series is going on....Seriously?

 

Two threads on this already.. I know because I posted the last one and was told I was too late  

 

After reading the article and filtering this through my objective-ometer...it sounds like Asus has this coming. The 'Droid' similarly took advantage of what has now become a pop culture term thanks to the Star Wars franchise, building off of this familiarity to push their brand recognition factor. Were I Lucas I would have sued their asses off (and perhaps they did, I wasn't paying attention).

Anyway, I think Hasbro is well within their rights and well justified here.

 

*snerk*

 

Those Asses. Sounds like them Asus Are Asses. NO ONE TOUCHES HASBRO'S BABY

 

I thought the brand was "transformerS" not transformer... Wasnt there a transformers marketed tablet?? i always thought it was this one.

 

HTC licensed the term 'droid' from Lucasfilm as they hold the trademark/copyright on the word.

 

Well a simple S does not excuse:

Transformer Prime
The commercial is similar to Cybertron's transformation in the movies
The tablet TRANSFORMS from Notebook to tablet.

I think this will be an easy case for Hasbro's lawyers. So easy that it won;t even get to trial.

 

Actually its not an HTC thing its a verizon thing. Android phones are only called droids on verizon because verizon actually paid for the licensing to use it to mareket the product from them.

 

that's just really stupid,

 

Truth. Sorta. This article claims that Motorola holds the license. But I digress as its not a big deal either way.

George Lucas Owns The Term DROID, Motorola Pays a Fee to License It

 

but that doesnt explain why they change the package though! RID instead of PRIME??????

 

Of course it doesn't explain why the line is called RID, as that has absolutely nothing to do with this.

 

I personally think the line is under RID because they will have Prime, Generations and FOC under one banner. Probably easier to get larger/smaller Generation toys out there other than Deluxes.

 

watch any android commercial, the fine print says the term is licensed for use from Lucasarts.

 

I'm honestly shocked that Asus was this stupid about things. When I first heard about their Transformer Prime thing, I was sure that they must have gone through the proper licensing channels in order to use those names. For a company as big and presumably competent as they are, I can't believe they just went ahead and did that without covering their legal bases.

 

It's called a transformer because it "transforms" between a tablet and a laptop. The eeepad transformer has been out for about a year now and hasn't been pulled for this supposed infringement. As for the prime part, yeah, it probably was added as a nod to transformers, but it's also a numerical term which would apply to a second edition of something.

Seriously, if Hasbro were making tablets in competition with asus, I could understand this a lot easier, but this is just a case of Hasbro wasting the legal system's time with a pissing contest over parts of a name. These two companies aren't even in remotely the same business, so unless they call it something like the decepticon: starscream, it's really comparing apples to hamburgers.

For a company that thought it was smart by putting vehicles with the company logos removed into their films as a way of getting what they want while skirting intellectual property arguments, this is pretty distasteful.

 

Well, there's these little things called trademarking and intellectual property, and I defy anyone to find even ONE person out there who wouldn't/doesn't immediately think of Transformers when they hear about something called "Transformer Prime". Asus knew exactly what they were doing with a name like that, and Hasbro is rightfully calling them out on it. Hundred bucks says that Hasbro is going to win this too.

 

On Sunday I was doing some research on Tablets. Now I knew the Asus Transformers was out prior. But then I had discovered the that Asus Transformer Prime was released (and being hailed as the best Tablet out at the moment). I really was wondering what was going on with this, especially considering how blatantly it was called this. I assumed that they might have made and arrangement of some sort with Hasbro. Guess not......