I noticed a discussion about who owns the Amiga trademark in a thread about some machines by CommodoreUSA. Rather than take that thread off OT, I thought I'd post a new thread.

IP is my area, so I did a little digging. I keep somewhat up to date with the Amiga soap opera, so I am basically aware that they settled their lawsuit. However, the interesting thing is that an opposition proceeding against the "AMIGA" trademarks in the US is still pending...

Hyperion have been opposing them since 2007. The opposition has dragged on and on, and had been put on hold pending "settlement" discussions. This is all fairly standard and par for the course, the interesting thing is that the last request for an extension was filed in September last year, which was granted - extending the opposition to the 3rd of February 2010.

The opposition is still open though. So either the USPTO has delayed in updating the status of the case (which is possible, but not this long of a delay), neither party has bothered to provide any further documents or the opposition is still active.

The most likely explanation is that neither party has provided the necessary documents to close the opposition, but the USPTO would normally then continue with the opposition and would be expecting discovery to have ended and documents to be forthcoming.

I suspect neither party has the money (particularly Amiga Inc), to have their attorneys prepare the documents to drop the opposition. That said, if I was Hyperion, I would be sitting tight until Amiga's financial situation was disclosed and attempt to use the opposition to grab the trademarks.

All this info is public, if you know where to look:

http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/

The proceeding number is: 91181145

@Twin

Thanks for keeping us updated on this. Always interesting to know what really goes on, especially if people like you with knowledge about IP stuff, keeps an eye on it.

If you discover more changes in the future don't forget to spread the word

Nice work!

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@Twin

Thanks for the infos.

It would be nice if Hyperion could finally take control over the complete set of trademark. They sure know how to use it.

cheers

g0blin

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Cybersphere Page

@Twin

I didn't knew the Amiga trademark is owned by Hyperion-Entertainment now, I only remebered what was witten on http://hyperion-entertainment.biz/

Quote:

Within the framework of the settlement agreement Hyperion is granted an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x (and subsequent versions of AmigaOS including without limitation AmigaOS 5) in any form, on any medium and for any current or future hardware platform under the exclusive trademark “AmigaOS” (Amiga operating system) and using other associated trademarks (such as the “BoingBall” logo).

But maybe this notice is outdated and the Amiga trademark belongs completely to Hyperion or A-EON now.

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AmigaONE. Haha. Just because you can put label on it does not make it Amiga.

I borrowed this comments from here (#27 & #28):
http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=38873&forum=2&start=20&order=0

I asked Ray Akey and Vince Pfeifer, if Amiga.com (domain) is for sale.

But no answer - but what do you expect...

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@Twin
Looks like there's still some life in the old girl after all, I see a March 31 action against a Amigo mark for mobile phones. AMiga Inc may be dead, but clearly her lawyers are not....

@persia

Maybe they decided to become an IP troll.

Quote:

@persia Maybe they decided to become an IP troll.

That really does not supprise me if that is the case, its a shame they cant just give it up to the community who will look after it properly.
There are some very good folk here in the amiga community, who would take good care of that domain name, me being one of them.

Last edited by Magic on 09-Apr-2010 at 04:21 PM.

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intresting link you get.Do you see any information how long the amiga Trademark is pay from ainc and what they need pay then to continue to use the trademark ?

http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pnam=Amiga,%20Inc.

here can see that Hyperion do some years ago some actions, not in the last years.

But was there not the contract from 2009 that Hyperion can not use amiga trademark ?

Well, there's been a bit of movement in the old Amiga corporate machine on the trademark front.

Amiga Inc has been opposing Cloanto's application for the trademarks "AMIGA FOREVER" and "WORKBENCH".

The opposition of the AMIGA FOREVER mark has the most action:

http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=91175664&pty=OPP

Long story short, there has been a bunch of delays culminating in a request by Cloanto to reopen things in January this year. Some back and forth follows with an interesting submission from Cloanto (number 31), with an email exchange between Bill McEwen and the MD of Cloanto around September last year.

Finally, things have been suspended again in May after both parties state they're negotiating settlement of the matter and other business matters. Read from that what you will.

Not really exciting news, but somebody out there is speaking on behalf of Amiga Inc...

@Arko

Quote:

Within the framework of the settlement agreement Hyperion is granted an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right to AmigaOS 3.1 in order to use, develop, modify, commercialize, distribute and market AmigaOS 4.x (and subsequent versions of AmigaOS including without limitation AmigaOS 5) in any form, on any medium and for any current or future hardware platform under the exclusive trademark “AmigaOS” (Amiga operating system) and using other associated trademarks (such as the “BoingBall” logo).

That statement applies to trademarks and further development of the AmigaOS.
However, IIRC existing contracts with Cloanto(and others) to distribute the classic Amiga OS and ROMS were still valid and unaffected by the settlement. I'm sure I saw that in court documents somewhere.

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Opinions expressed are my own and not those of C= USA.
Commodore/AMIGA "Beautiful, High-Performance, Home Computers for Creativity and Entertainment."

@BigBentheAussie

If Amiga Inc still own the name "Amiga" then couldn't Cloanto just change the name to "AmigaOS Forever"?

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@1Mouse

They'd still need a license for that name. The license also covers the right to distribute Amiga Inc's IP in the form of the Kickstart Roms and the OS files/disks.

@1Mouse

If they rename it AmigaOS Forever they would have to get permission from Hyperion, who most likely be more willing to allow them. But i think a better name world be Workbench forever, who owns the rights to the workbench name?

It seem odd to me that they seem to be trying to protect the IP of Amiga name, to stop damage ageist it, probably a good thing as I could see a lot of company starting up claiming to be Amiga and putting out rubbish product....oh wait that's already happened

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@Twin

Just closing out this 7 year old thread, as AW has just had a trademark headline recently:

Amiga Inc. Loses U.S. Trademarks

Using your link and your case#, we can see this dragged on almost another year.

Quote:

On November 12, 2010, the Board sent an order to show cause under Trademark Rule 2.128(a)(3) regarding opposer's failure to file a brief on the case. Inasmuch as no response has been received, judgment is hereby entered against opposer under Trademark Rule 2.128(a)(3), and the opposition is dismissed with prejudice.

#6

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