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Thread: Things you never realised about Transformers (toys etc)

  1. #741
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    ^I did not know that, that's awesome!

    -----------------------------
    Just noticed that Titans Return Weirdwolf will be called Wolfwire. Two questions come to mind:

    1/ Does this means that Hasbro were unable to register a closer approximation to the name, like "Decepticon Weirdwolf"? I take it that names like "Strangewolf" or "Oddwolf" are also undoable. What about "Weirwolf"? I know that it doesn't make much sense (a wolf who lives by a weir?), but Hasbro have certainly given us far more ridiculous names like that in the past (e.g. Wind Sheer ).

    2/ This means that somewhere out there, someone else is holding the trademark for "Weirdwolf." I must say that I didn't see that coming.

    And what's up with Wolfwire coming with "Monxo," but there's a separate Titan Master called "Monzo"?

  2. #742
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
    1/ Does this means that Hasbro were unable to register a closer approximation to the name, like "Decepticon Weirdwolf"?
    I read that as Doctor Werewolf, which most of you probably have no idea who or what that is, unless you like Dubstep
    I'll update this when I'm needing help finding particular figures

  3. #743
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    ^ Or..

    3/ Someone at Hasbro doesn't like the name.

    Name changes happen aaalllllllllllllllllll the time.
    "I am not a gun. I'm hitting people with a hammer. On Mars."
    The Iron Giant / David Wildgoose

  4. #744
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  5. #745
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    Just a case of PC strikes again....


    Not the good PC that sends us toys from QLD.... The bad one where you can't call anyone weird any more....

  6. #746
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
    ^I did not know that, that's awesome!

    -----------------------------
    Just noticed that Titans Return Weirdwolf will be called Wolfwire. Two questions come to mind:

    1/ Does this means that Hasbro were unable to register a closer approximation to the name, like "Decepticon Weirdwolf"? I take it that names like "Strangewolf" or "Oddwolf" are also undoable. What about "Weirwolf"? I know that it doesn't make much sense (a wolf who lives by a weir?), but Hasbro have certainly given us far more ridiculous names like that in the past (e.g. Wind Sheer ).

    2/ This means that somewhere out there, someone else is holding the trademark for "Weirdwolf." I must say that I didn't see that coming.

    And what's up with Wolfwire coming with "Monxo," but there's a separate Titan Master called "Monzo"?
    It's possible that someone else isn't holding the trademark for Weirdwolf, but that it's felt by the trademark office to be too close to a generic term which would not be trademarkable (i.e werewolf) or too similarly to a term which another company has trademarked. In this latter case, what immediately springs to mind is "warg wolf" from Lord of the Rings, which might well be held by whoever the licensee for that franchise is. Trademark law is complex and nuanced, and just because one trademark can't be used by one company doesn't mean another is using it.

  7. #747
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    Fair point, although it's not unheard of for people to "trademark squat" by taking trademarks and doing nothing with them (but continuing to register them so noone else can use them). Kinda like a form of intellectual property hoarding. *cough*HarmonyGold*cough*

  8. #748
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
    Fair point, although it's not unheard of for people to "trademark squat" by taking trademarks and doing nothing with them (but continuing to register them so noone else can use them). Kinda like a form of intellectual property hoarding. *cough*HarmonyGold*cough*
    Not unheard of, but difficult. If say a company called Symphony Bronze was squatting on the Weirdfwolf name, Hasbro would be able to take action against them, and they would have to prove either that they have used the trademark recently or have definite plans to use it - this is how Hasbro were able to lose names like Bumblebee back in the 90s, since they couldn't prove recent use or that they were about to use it. It's also bad for the company who holds the trademark as it may force them to give away their plans - for example Hasbro might have been forced into revealing the existence of the movie if someone had challenged their registration of Bumblebee back in 2004.

  9. #749
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    I wonder how quickly a company can lose a trademark after disuse. It might be as quickly as a year (which would explain why Hasbro are so keen on releasing lots of toys named "Optimus Prime" and "Megatron" every year; although I think they've gone a tad overboard (they would only need to release one of each per year) ).

    e.g. Bumblebee and Hound; the last time Hasbro used these names before they lost them was in 1995; G2 Go-Bot Bumblebee and the never released G2 Autoroller Sgt. Hound. My presumption has been that toys like BW Buzz Saw and K-9 were assigned these names because Hasbro had lost the rights to Bumblebee and Hound by this stage. Although those toys were released in 1997, Hasbro would've needed to register the names in 1996 well before their release, so their application for those names may have been knocked back as early as just one year after having registered them for the final year of G2 in '95.

    Hasbro last used the name "Laserbeak" in 1985 and had lost it by 1997, hence the BW character's name had the cringeworthy spelling of "Lazorbeak." Hasbro last used the name "Weirdwolf" in 2007, which feels like yesterday to me, but was actually 9 freakin' years ago. So yeah... definitely possible that they might've lost the rights to the name in the meantime.

    But it's also interesting to imagine why they can't just keep it a "less intrusive" variation, like "Decepticon Weirdwolf" or "Decepticon Weirdwulf" (wulf being German for wolf), or "Oddwolf" or "Oddwulf" or something like that. Wolfwire... Okay, he's a wolf. Wire? Still, I'll take Wolfwire over Tankor or Scattorwolf.

  10. #750
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
    And what's up with Wolfwire coming with "Monxo," but there's a separate Titan Master called "Monzo"?
    There is???

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