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Amiga, Inc.

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This article is about a former Amiga company. For other uses, see Amiga (disambiguation).

Amiga, Inc. was a company run by Bill McEwen that used to hold some trademarks and other assets associated with the Amiga personal computer. The company has its origins in South Dakota–based Amiga, Inc., a subsidiary of Gateway 2000, of which McEwen was its marketing chief. Gateway 2000 sold the Amiga properties to McEwen's company Amino Development on December 31, 1999,[1] which he later renamed to Amiga, Inc. The company sold the Amiga properties to Mike Battilana on February 1, 2019, under a new entity called Amiga Corporation.[2]

Amiga, Inc.
Company typePrivate
Industryvideo game industry Edit this on Wikidata
Founded1999; 25 years ago (1999)
HeadquartersIssaquah, Washington
Key people
Bill McEwen
ProductsXpedio tablets, Amiga Anywhere, AmigaOS 4

Background

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In the early 1980s Jay Miner, along with other Atari, Inc. staffers, set up another chip-set project under a new company in Santa Clara, called Hi-Toro (later renamed to Amiga Corporation), where they could have some creative freedom. Atari, Inc.[3] went into contract with Amiga for licensed use of the chipset in a new high end game console and then later for use in a computer system.[4] $500,000 was advanced to Amiga to continue development of the chipset.[5] Amiga negotiated with Commodore International two weeks prior to the contract deadline of 30 June 1984.[6] In August 1984, Atari Corporation, under Jack Tramiel, sued Amiga for breach of contract. The case was settled in 1987 in a closed settlement.[7]

In 1994, Commodore filed for bankruptcy and its assets were purchased by Escom, a German PC manufacturer, who in turn went bankrupt in 1996. The Commodore-Amiga assets were then sold to another PC manufacturer, Gateway 2000, which had announced grand plans for the Amiga. However, in 1999, Gateway sold the assets (except for the patents, which were only licensed) to Amino Development[8] for almost 5 million dollars.[9] Gateway still retained ownership to the Commodore-Amiga patents. The last of the Commodore-Amiga patents (EP0316325B1 for "Cursor controlled user interface system", based on US887053) expired on July 14, 2007.[10]

Dispute and settlement with Hyperion

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See also: History of the AmigaOS 4 dispute

In 2007 Amiga, Inc. announced specs for a new line of Amiga computers: low end[11] and high models.[12] At the same time Amiga, Inc. sued Hyperion Entertainment, a company developing AmigaOS 4 for AmigaOne boards[13] for trademark infringement in the Washington Western District Court in Seattle, USA. The company claimed Hyperion was in breach of contract, citing trademark violation and copyright infringement concerning the development and marketing of AmigaOS 4.0.[14][15]

Also in 2007, Amiga, Inc. intended to become the naming-rights sponsor for a planned ice hockey arena in Kent, Washington, but failed to deliver a promised down payment.[16]

Pentti Kouri, chairman of the board and a primary source of capital for Amiga, Inc., died in 2009.[17]

On September 20, 2009, Amiga Inc and Hyperion Entertainment reached a settlement where 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 AmigaOS 5).[18]

Later, Amiga Inc. was in another dispute with Hyperion due to the release of Workbench 3.1.4 by Hyperion. This was settled on 30 March 2023.[19]

Licensing rights

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Amiga, Inc. licensed the rights to make hardware using the AmigaOne brand to a computer vendor based in the UK, Eyetech Group. However, due to poor sales Eyetech suffered substantial losses and ceased trading.[20]

In 2010 a Florida-based company calling itself Commodore USA, but lacking rights to the brand name, claimed they had acquired the rights to the Amiga name and would relaunch Amiga branded desktops running AROS[21] and Linux.[22] Hyperion Entertainment promptly disputed this,[23] on the basis of a 2009 settlement agreement between Hyperion and Amiga Inc. After legal threats from Hyperion, Commodore USA dropped their AROS plans, claimed they would create a new Linux-based OS called AMIGA Workbench 5.0 (later changed to Commodore OS since Workbench was owned by Cloanto), and shut down in 2012.[24][citation needed]

In 2011, Amiga Inc. licensed the brand name to Hong Kong based manufacturer IContain Systems, Ltd.[25]

In 2012, Amiga Inc. completed the transfer of copyrights up to 1993 to Cloanto.[26][27]

Recent events

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On February 1, 2019, Amiga Inc. transferred all its IP (including Amiga trademarks and remaining copyrights) to C-A Acquisition Corp., owned by Mike Battilana (director of Cloanto, company behind the Amiga Forever emulation package),[28] later renamed to Amiga Corporation.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ https://www.theregister.com/1999/12/31/gateway_sells_amiga_to_examiga/
  2. ^ a b "C-A Acquisition Corp. renamed to Amiga Corporation". Amiga-News.de. 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.atarimuseum.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2006. Retrieved 22 May 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ ATARI Corp. vs. Amiga Corporation, U.S. (Santa Clara, California Federal Court 6 March 1984 contract between Atari Inc. and Amiga Corp. included in evidence filings).[permanent dead link‍]
  5. ^ Chira, Susan (29 August 1984), "Amiga's high-tech gamble", The New York Times, New York, New York, retrieved 27 November 2010
  6. ^ "Atari sues over chips", The Modesto Bee, Modesto, California, p. 19, 22 August 1984, retrieved 27 November 2010
  7. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Atari, Commodore Settle", The New York Times, New York, New York, 24 March 1987, retrieved 27 November 2010
  8. ^ "Amino Development Buys Amiga Name, Inventory From Gateway". 31 December 1999. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  9. ^ Bouma, Mike (8 October 2002). "A Closer Look at MorphOS on the PEGASOS". OSNews. Archived from the original on 1 September 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  10. ^ "EP0316325B1 - Cursor controlled user interface system - Google Patents". Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  11. ^ "Amiga News". Amiga.com. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  12. ^ "Amiga News". Amiga.com. Archived from the original on 16 December 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  13. ^ "Amiga Inc v. Hyperion VOF :: Justia Dockets & Filings". Dockets.justia.com. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  14. ^ "Amiga, Inc. sues Hyperion VOF". AmigaNet.net. 1 May 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2 May 2007.
  15. ^ "Official statement on litigation with Amiga Inc". Hyperion-entertainment.biz. 1 May 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  16. ^ Brunner, Jim (31 July 2007). "Amiga fails to deliver cash, loses naming rights to Kent arena". The Seattle Times Company. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2 August 2007.
  17. ^ "Amiga Inc.: Pentti Kouri died". Amiga-News.de. 2 January 2009. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  18. ^ "Hyperion, Amiga, Inc. Reach Settlement, All Legal Issues Resolved". OSNews. 17 October 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. Retrieved 18 October 2009.
  19. ^ https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/washington/wawdce/2:2018cv00381/256770/141
  20. ^ "AmigaOne News : 20 Answers with Alan Redhouse of Eyetech". 6 June 2005. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
  21. ^ "Commodore USA to relaunch Amiga brand with series of AROS desktops". Engadget. 31 August 2010. Archived from the original on 2 September 2010. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  22. ^ "Commodore outs Linux-running Amiga Mini desktop". The Register. Archived from the original on 4 November 2010.
  23. ^ "Commodore Gets Rights to Amiga, Hyperion Takes Legal Action". Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  24. ^ "Introducing AMIGA Workbench 5.0". Commodore USA. 31 August 2010. Archived from the original on 23 December 2010. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  25. ^ "Press release on Amiga.com". Amiga Inc. 5 April 2011. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
  26. ^ "Cloanto". Amiga Documents. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  27. ^ "Cloanto confirms transfers of Commodore/Amiga copyrights". amiga-news.de. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  28. ^ "Legal dispute: Amiga Inc. transferred rights to Mike Battilana's company". Amiga-News.de. 5 February 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
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