I know there are pleanty of rumors and fan guesses about Hasbro's legal department going after 3rd party toys, but I'm not interested in that. I'm wanting to keep track of actual confirmed legal actions, or at least written letters that Hasbro's legal department has sent out.

Note: This is not a thread to swap legal theory, bash anyone on either side of the fence, or rant. I just want to keep track of actual legal actions Hasbro has taken.

Here are the ones I can confrim.

*HASBRO BRADLEY, INC. v. SPARKLE TOYS, INC., 780 F.2d 189 (2nd Cir. 1985) Hasbro sued Sparkle Toys over the use of the Jumpstarter molds, which Sparkle claimed were in the public domain since they hadn't been properly copywritten when released by Takara. Hasbro won.

HASBRO BRADLEY, INC. v. SPARKLE TOYS, INC., 780 F.2d 189 (2nd Cir. 1985)


*In 2012 Hasbro sent a Cease and Desist order to Comic Ink over their iGear G2 Ramjet exclusive. This was confirmed by Comic Ink in this thread:

iGear Generation 2 Colors Ramjet Preorders Open - Transformers News - TFW2005

Comic Ink canceled the toy.


*Hasbro put in their dealer contract at Botcon 2012 about being able to confiscate any item they wished from the dealers. This language was very broad, leaving many dealers wondering. Hasbro later clarified out this was targeted at items that violated Hasbro IP. Can anyone confirm any single case of Hasbro exercising this clause of their contract at Botcon?

No 3rd Party Toys at Botcon 2012 - Transformers News - TFW2005

 

I want to say Hasbro went after a guy who was selling KO figures on his website -- I think the website's name was KO Toys? If I remember right, Hasbro sent him a cease and desist.

Here's a thread I dug up:

KO Toys Closing Down

 

He made many rants, but I don't think we have any specific proof. Genzao sid he had pressure from "some company". Is there at least an actual post by him saying "Hasbro sent me a cease and desist letter." If not, that's just rumor.

 

Hasbro notified various online retailers that they were not to sell the iGear seekers on their sites or Hasbro would cease supply to them as part of the Comic Ink G2 Ramjet issue. That was confirmed to me by 2 of the affected retailers but I wouldn't want to name them without their consent as that could make life difficult for them.

It is however why you can buy them from the affected retailers' Ebay auctions but not their stores.

 

I have heard that myself, but again, we lack proof.

There was an actual case where Hasbro sent a C&D to a company called WhiteDove, for making plush versions of My Little Pony.

Equestria Daily: Hasbro Sends Cease and Desist to WhiteDove

Much like the case against Comic Ink, someone sent Hasbro a letter complaining, so Hasbro, by law, as required to send a C&D, or risk loosing their IP by not defending it!

 

Here is at least a Transformers related legal case. In 2000 Hasbro sent a C&D to a kid who owned the dinobot.org domain name!

Give the Gift of Lawsuits. (Hasbro vs. Dinobot.org) | Right Wing News

Seem the kid owned dinobot.org because Dinobot was his nickname, Hasbro claimed to have the legal right to any domain with a name they had trademarked. Although lawyers claimed that the kid would win a court case, the kid didn't have the money to mount a defense. The kid offered to trade the domain to Hasbro if they paid for a new domain for his site. Anyone know anything else about this case?

Additional - here is what happened in this case:

http://www.negafox.com/About.asp

Hasbro dropped it when they were bought out infogames. Dinobot canged his site to Negafox anyways, and has posted that he has trademaked the name Negafox himself.

 

I think if we are going to do this the right way, we have to include KO Toys - while we don't have anything quite as concrete as a cease and desist letter from Hasbro's legal department, I believe the remaining circumstantial evidence is quite persuasive.

For instance, while it is certainly true that the initial comments made by the owners and operators of the site did not directly allude to Hasbro's involvement, the same cannot be said for the screed they posted while they were busy reconfiguring their inventory - it was very clearly an anti-Hasbro piece, and made reference to the Hasbro labor scandal. Furthermore, once the site was returned to operation, all products derived from Hasbro / TakTomy intellectual property were removed; whereas those products that were derived from the intellectual property of other companies (such as the various knock-off City Commander armors) were retained. Together, these things strongly infer Hasbro's involvement.

 

Yes, he did have some sort of beef with Hasbro. Thing is we don't know exactly what anyone specifically did against him. DId he get a C&D letter about selling toys? From who? Hasbro? Takara? Maybe his web host got a letter telling them to shut down the site if he didn't remove something. Did he comply with a request, or did he go to court? There was clearly a spat between KOtoys and some Hasbro related group. We just don't know the details.

 

I like the idea of this thread, as a resource for third party vendors. Kudos to the OP, fight the power.

 

There was the case against Asus's Transformer Prime laptop/tablet.

Hasbro took Asus to court for using the name "Transformer Prime". Hasbro made arguments that this would confuse consumers that the Asus product was related to their franchise. The judge denied their attempt at a prelminary injunction of the product's release. Hasbro has stated they disagree with the ruling.

Update: Hasbro Can't Stop Sale Of 'Transformer Prime' Tablets — paidContent

 

In Chimungmung dissappeared from the site many Good KO!

 

Perhaps we could list it under some sort of "Unconfirmed" heading? I hate to push the issue, but I genuinely appreciate the work you are putting in here to try and change the inaccurate perceptions in the community regarding the legal status of third party products, and I would hate to see those that most need to absorb this information dismiss it out of hand because the rather well-known example of KO Toys was not included in some capacity.

 

Well, it is here now thanks to your post, sadly we have little concrete information. If someone has any information we missing, please let us know.

 

I wouldn't say it's a lack of proof when the retailers themselves have confirmed it, but it's totally understandable that none of them want to post openly about what happened in case Hasbro cut them off for talking about it. I'm sure if you PM them on here they'll all confirm it to you.

Yep I remember that. Here's the original thread on ATT about it back in 2001. I added a disclaimer to my site around that time in order to make it clear that I was "promoting" TFs and that they and the name Skywarp were property of Hasbro (my site was skywarp.co.uk). Eventually I just shut the site down in 2004.

 

Are you sure about that?

 

There was also the original Ages 3 and Up. They were selling all kinds of G1 KOs through their store - Sunstreaker, Metroplex, Reflector, the cassettes - a lot of stuff that wasn't available at the time from Hasbro unless it was vintage.

Hasbro eventually brought the hammer down on them, and thus they got stuck with all kinds of product they weren't legally allowed to sell. They were allowed to bring it to TFcon and clear it out at bargain basement prices (a lot of these KOs went for good money as they were decent quality KOs of rarer toys) but I suspect that's part of the reason they went under.

 

I seem to recall someone wanting to make a drift figure very long ago (before the official one came). I think they too, got contacted by Hasbro and told to stop. I was trying to find some info on that some days ago, just to confirm that I didn't imagine the whole thing.

Anyone else remember that deal? I'm sure I even saw some prototype pics.

 

You talking about the resin kit? It came out and has been recasted since then...iirc it was very poor quality.

 

Found it, and man it looks terrible.

SG Collect DFT-01X Assasin (Drift) Resin Kit in the Works - Transformers News - TFW2005

 

Bump

Any news on the legal front?