I recently found that my user groups (MAG) logo which incorporates the Boing ball is "a possible violation of the CafePress.com Content Usage Policy"

I am a little miffed at this because I am proud of my computing heritage and would love to have a good quality tshirt with my usergroup logo on. I'm not making much money from it and the money that I 'may' make would go back into running the club for the greater good of Amiga users.

Does anybody own the copyright to the ball? Would they give me permission to use the ball?

Cheers
Niceguy1979

@niceguy1979

Yes. The Boing Ball logo is one of the things that Amiga Inc. (Delaware) has deposed to the USPTO.
For the story, the status of this trademark is somehow "on hold", as it has been opposed by Hyperion (but both Amiga Inc. and Hyperion VOF are in negociation about this now for the upcoming months).
I think you won't be sued right now, but you could be later (Amiga Inc. has opposed the "Amiga Forever" trademark deposed by Cloanto. They are also in negociation.)
If in doubt, I recommend you to ask the permission to AInc. (but good luck to get a reply ).

@AmigaPhil

thanks for the advice. I hope they wouldn't be stupid enough to start suing their supporters for using the boing ball....but then again, I wouldn't be surprised!

It looks like I'm going to have to send emails asking for permission. Fingers crossed.

@niceguy1979
They threatened to sue someone for posting a video of a amiga running a custom kickstart... So yes, they are very likely to even sue people in the amiga community even for such a small issue like this.

I would play it safe and ask permission or not use it, they spend more time sueing than what they should be doing, making new Amiga hardware and developing new Amiga OS

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Night Operations

A1200 020/28MHz + 64Mb / 4Gb CF / OS 3.1.4.1 / 1438S
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A600

@niceguy1979

They're suing the people who designed OS4, I wouldn't put it past them. At all.

In fact didn't they sue for the use of the Boing ball? My brain turns to cheese when I try to understand the court case.

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Rage quited 29th May 2011

@AmigaPhil

Quote:

Amiga Inc. has opposed the "Amiga Forever" trademark deposed by Cloanto. They are also in negociation.

Any more info on this one?

@niceguy1979

You don't need their permission to use the boing ball in your own graphics because they can't claim/enforce copyrights on something for which there's been prior art going back centuries.

What you might not be able to do with it however, is use it as the logo for marketing computer-related products, in the U.S., and only if their trademark registration turns out to be enforceable.

They somewhat painted their "Amiga" trademark enforceability in a corner by naming the company "Amiga" because it will always be the name of the computer line sold by Commodore and that only leaves them with valid claims against slapping that name on computers, but nothing prevents you from marketing software called "Amiga Anything" which you couldn't have done with the name "Commodore Anything" or "Microsoft Anything" obviously.
Only they can use the name "Amiga Anywhere" but can't prevent others from using anything else they haven't specifically registered like "Amiga Mail" "Amiga Writer" and "AmigaWorld".

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AlexC's free OS4 software collection

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@Rob

Quote:

Quote: Amiga Inc. has opposed the "Amiga Forever" trademark deposed by Cloanto. They are also in negociation. Any more info on this one?

Nothing new. The suspension (of the opposition) period has been prolongated to somewhere in 2009, IIRC.