@samface
Here are my interpretations, for what it's worth... (probably nothing)
Insolvency: This is not something that needs nor can be decided by a court, and it can be a temporary or permanent state. When there's less cash on hand than bills to pay you're already insolvent. Money owed to you and your assets don't count for squat at that point in time. That state, if it lasts for a certain amount of time and doesn't look likely to change, can be used by creditors to ask a court to declare a company bankrupt, which then can be liquidated (in order to pay the creditors). Of course if you can sell some assets, get a loan, collect dues or complete a transaction that puts more money in the bank than the sum of what you owe, you are no longer insolvent and cannot be declared bankrupt either. That's why the Thendic/Genesi lawyer asked Bill Mc E. if AInc was insolvent. But the judges know that such a state can be short-lived and as a result of Bill claiming that money was coming soon, it became difficult to use his statement to request that AInc be liquidated.
In regards to the contract with Hyperion, the lack of definition around "insolvent" (for an hour, a month, a year?) creates a problem regarding its interpretation. Technically Hyperion can claim that if AInc became insolvent at any time, for any amount of time, the clause applies. On the other hand, that's not the intention behind the clause. It was a failsafe put in place to garantee that no matter what happens to AInc, the rights to distribute the OS and machine under the Amiga name were safe even if AInc's assets fell into the wrong hands. It's my belief that the purpose of AInc changing hands a few times was for the same reason.
Which brings us to the $$$... Debts owed by Amiga Washington: I don't know all the debts they had and still have, but from the statements on various court documents we know that Bolton P. is still owed tens of thousands and Bill Mc E. is still owed 750K (that's what he gets for paying himself so much). These two outstanding debts alone, due to their age, support a stricter definition of long-term or permanent insolvency so Hyperion has them well cornered on that one, no matter how vague its scope was on the contract, and in my opinion should be reason enough for AInc. to drop the suit and seek negotiations rather than risk a judgement in Hyperion's favor.
"Deregistration": As far as I know AInc. Washington didn't unregister itself, the registration expired on its own as it wasn't renewed. That doesn't mean the company ceases to exist, it only means it can no longer conduct business until its registration has been renewed. It doesn't erase the debts either, that would be too easy.
So who's the good/bad guy? With my complete lack of knowledge about what happened behind the scene between Hyperion and AInc. I can only go by what makes sense if I put myself in each player's shoes. I must assume that AInc has a genuine interest in OS4 or they wouldn't have agreed to the AmigaOne partnership in the first place, nor requested (and financed?) the port to the IBM PDA, nor looked for new hardware suitable to run OS4, nor gotten into some disagreement with Hyperion and ultimately that lawsuit. They seemingly only cared about DE/AA but to me it looks more like a way to make money NOW and stay afloat as they'd be long gone if it had depended on OS4 alone. Ditto for ditching AInc WA and all its debts, it keeps the company from going down though the morality of that move can be questionned but the end justifies the means I suppose. From that angle they don't strike me as bad guys, not as good as we'd like them to be and they can be criticized for the way they handled many things, but nobody's perfect and at least "Amiga" is still in business. (The current mess still is better than all the IP locked in Gateway's drawer due to M$ blackmail). At least they're trying.
Hyperion obviously has vested interests in OS4, and I doubt they made a lot of money on the side during the years that were spent on the OS, most likely they hoped to make up for it in the end, and perhaps in 2005 felt that end to be threatened by some statements or decisions from AInc, possibly about HW licensing requirements and took a more defensive stance which broadened the disagreement with AInc. As their only history is writing the OS, they look pretty good to me. Trying to take the OS completely out of AInc's hand and preventing them from using their own trademark sounds a bit harsh to me, though they're just giving AInc a taste of their own medecine. I want to be as impartial as I can but no matter how hard I try, I just can't find any negative thing to tack on Hyperion based on what I know so far.
AInc probably expected OS4 to be ready much sooner but many things didn't happen as planned and now that Tao looks doomed, the future doesn't seem too bright for DE/AA, so OS4 might have gained a lot more importance to them, and Hyperion probably expected new HW to get AInc's blessing without so many obstacles, putting them in a difficult position.
That's all I have to say...
(not really but looking at the preview, even after cutting out a few paragraphs it's still too long so I better stop there)
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