I remember back in '03 I bought Hot Rod reissue but his name changed to Rodimus Major. I was a little surprised by that. I know some of the names Hasbro lost, they got some of the names back like Hot Rod, Bumblebee and a few others. But I never found out how Hasbro lose the trademark names. Doesn't the names belong to Hasbro? Who did they it to and how did they get some of the names back.
These trademarks expire after a time if they aren't continuously used. Once expired, they're eligible to be trademarked by other companies in the same category (toys and sporting goods, usually). If Hasbro wants the name back, they have to wait until the other company lets their rights expire.
If a name isn't used for a certain amount of time, another company can use it. There is more complications than that but that's the basic reason. This is why a lot of names get slapped on figures when it really doesn't fit he character. Hasbro preserving the name. Some times, Hasbro changes the name to include the faction if the name is too generic of a name. Jazz became Autobot Jazz. I've been surprised a few times when a name is lost and have never seen the toy that got the name. Someone please show me the non-Transformers Motormaster that resulted in us getting Motorbreath. In the 80's the rules were different. Both Go-Bots & Transformers had a few shared names (Warpath, Blaster and maybe some more). And these were lines directly competing against each other. They should revise the rules a little more to narrow it down to a more precise category. Say boys action figures or something for Transformers. Just to keep Littlest Pet Shop from one day swiping Bumblebee's name or something. Those two lines aren't competing with each other and any crossover audience is pretty slim. TF would still have to watch out for DC figures, Turtles, Power Rangers, any other action figure line out.
To elaborate, during G1, hasbro didnt really think that characters would be reused or uber popular icons like they were today, so they just let the trademarks go instead of spending money to keep them
Did they even bother with trademarks with G1? Looking at old and new bio blurbs, the recent ones have that symbol attached to every proper noun while the originals had nothing:
It must have been the rules back then. I checked a Go Bots figure and it didn't have the copyright mark next to the name either.
It's very possibly due to auto-parts manufacturer Motor Master Powersports. It isn't always a competing toy to blame. Remember, Hasbro can't use the Outback name anymore due to the restaurant chain. Littlest Pet Shop is also a Hasbro property, though. While I doubt Hasbro would use the Bumblebee name over there (Bumblebee being an institution unto himself at this point) there could be some crossover use of lesser characters' names without issue, just like there's occasional names used by both Transformers and G.I. Joe.
Littlest Pet Shop was just a line I thought of that could potentially want a name Transformers has. I didn't know who puts it out. The example is still valid. Just insert a non-Hasbro toyline name for Littlest Pet Shop.
Didn't I read somewhere that Hasbro gave up on trademarking Bumblebee? The just figure he's so popular that it doesn't hurt them not to have it.
I doubt that. Companies have to protect their trademarks, no matter how popular the character is. Bumblebee is safe for the foreseeable future since he'll be in future movies and probably post-RID shows.
I think the word bumblebee would be considered a common word, like apple: Registering a Trademark for Common Words or Phrases
I'm happy that the toy wasn't called Motormaster. Motormaster shouldn't be just a cab. I repurposed Motorbreath as being a seperate individual and is the 1986 Motormaster's cab in fiction.
I still don't get why Hasbro when it comes to Octane always defaults to Tankor and not something like Mega-Octane from RID or Decepticon Octane? They need to just pre-fix/suffix everything. shouldn't it be more similar.
I believe that there were conflicts with Hot Wheels when it came to Hotrod (of course, now I can't find the article I was reading that stated that ). As for Shockwave, I'm almost positive that they lost the trademark for awhile (which is why they used Shockblast for a bit), but have since reacquired it.
