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Amiga, Inc.

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

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

Amiga, Inc.is a company run by Bill McEwen that used to hold some trademarks and other assets associated with theAmigapersonal computer. The company has its origins inSouth Dakota–basedAmiga, Inc.,a subsidiary ofGateway 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]

Background

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In the early 1980sJay Miner,along with otherAtari, Inc.staffers, set up another chip-set project under a new company in Santa Clara, called Hi-Toro (later renamed toAmiga 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 withCommodore Internationaltwo weeks prior to the contract deadline of 30 June 1984.[6]In August 1984,Atari Corporation,underJack 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 byEscom,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 ofAmigaOS 4.0.[14][15]

Also in 2007, Amiga, Inc. intended to become the naming-rights sponsor for a plannedice hockeyarena inKent, 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 marketAmigaOS 4.xand subsequent versions ofAmigaOS(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 theAmigaOnebrand 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 itselfCommodore USA,but lacking rights to the brand name, claimed they had acquired the rights to the Amiga name and would relaunch Amiga branded desktops runningAROS[21] and Linux.[22]Hyperion Entertainmentpromptly disputed this,[23]on the basis of a 2009settlement agreementbetween 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 byCloanto), and shut down in 2012.[24][citation needed]

In 2011, Amiga Inc. licensed the brand name toHong Kongbased manufacturerIContain 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 theAmiga Foreveremulation 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. ^ab"C-A Acquisition Corp. renamed to Amiga Corporation".Amiga-News.de. 15 July 2020.Retrieved15 July2020.
  3. ^"Archived copy"(PDF).www.atarimuseum.com.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 18 October 2006.Retrieved22 May2022.{{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,retrieved27 November2010
  6. ^"Atari sues over chips",The Modesto Bee,Modesto, California, p. 19, 22 August 1984,retrieved27 November2010
  7. ^"COMPANY NEWS; Atari, Commodore Settle",The New York Times,New York, New York, 24 March 1987,retrieved27 November2010
  8. ^"Amino Development Buys Amiga Name, Inventory From Gateway".31 December 1999. Archived fromthe originalon 6 November 2010.Retrieved3 September2010.
  9. ^Bouma, Mike (8 October 2002)."A Closer Look at MorphOS on the PEGASOS".OSNews.Archivedfrom the original on 1 September 2010.Retrieved4 September2010.
  10. ^"EP0316325B1 - Cursor controlled user interface system - Google Patents".Retrieved14 July2022.
  11. ^"Amiga News".Amiga.com.Retrieved3 December2013.
  12. ^"Amiga News".Amiga.com. Archived fromthe originalon 16 December 2007.Retrieved3 December2013.
  13. ^"Amiga Inc v. Hyperion VOF:: Justia Dockets & Filings".Dockets.justia.com.Retrieved3 December2013.
  14. ^"Amiga, Inc. sues Hyperion VOF".AmigaNet.net. 1 May 2007. Archived fromthe originalon 29 September 2007.Retrieved2 May2007.
  15. ^"Official statement on litigation with Amiga Inc".Hyperion-entertainment.biz. 1 May 2007.Retrieved3 December2013.
  16. ^Brunner, Jim (31 July 2007)."Amiga fails to deliver cash, loses naming rights to Kent arena".The Seattle Times Company. Archived fromthe originalon 29 September 2007.Retrieved2 August2007.
  17. ^"Amiga Inc.: Pentti Kouri died".Amiga-News.de. 2 January 2009.Retrieved7 February2019.
  18. ^"Hyperion, Amiga, Inc. Reach Settlement, All Legal Issues Resolved".OSNews. 17 October 2009.Archivedfrom the original on 19 October 2009.Retrieved18 October2009.
  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.Retrieved3 September2010.
  21. ^"Commodore USA to relaunch Amiga brand with series of AROS desktops".Engadget. 31 August 2010.Archivedfrom the original on 2 September 2010.Retrieved1 September2010.
  22. ^"Commodore outs Linux-running Amiga Mini desktop".The Register.Archivedfrom the original on 4 November 2010.
  23. ^"Commodore Gets Rights to Amiga, Hyperion Takes Legal Action".Retrieved1 September2010.
  24. ^"Introducing AMIGA Workbench 5.0".Commodore USA. 31 August 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 23 December 2010.Retrieved13 December2010.
  25. ^ "Press release on Amiga.com".Amiga Inc. 5 April 2011. Archived fromthe originalon 7 October 2011.Retrieved7 October2011.
  26. ^"Cloanto".Amiga Documents.Retrieved20 February2015.
  27. ^"Cloanto confirms transfers of Commodore/Amiga copyrights".amiga-news.de.Retrieved20 February2015.
  28. ^"Legal dispute: Amiga Inc. transferred rights to Mike Battilana's company".Amiga-News.de. 5 February 2019.Retrieved7 February2019.
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