Hyperion VOF Sued by Amiga Inc

Source: Justia.com

@tsifnori

That would tie up with this..

http://www.amiga.com/about/history/?t=os

Quote:


Note to members, whilst this is disturbing news, I would ask you all to discuss this in a civilized manner, if you want flame wars, please go elsewhere.

@Mikey_C

I don't get whats going on there, really, i don't get it!

@Raziel

well..

You could see it like this...

1: Amiga Inc have shafted Hyperion for all their hard work
2: SAM E440 Board is in trouble.
3: Troika is in trouble.

We now have to rely on a company that has a really bad record for broken/unkept promises and who has a focus on AmigaDE than Amiga OS (Which is what we are interested in)

Who has now teamed up with an individual who, according to Jens Schofield, "doesn't deliver".

I think Bill McEwen should tell us what is going on. I want to believe that all is gonna be great, that its sorted, we can rest assured, that the SAM, Amy, etc will be granted Licenses too etc, etc.

I for one find this whole thing disturbing, I want some HONEST answers for once. no gloss, no spin, just the facts.

Bill, are you reading this?

EDIT, Why can't they all WORK together?

@Mikey_C

Well, that's one way of looking at it.

I guess Amiga believes that they have payed for OS4 already (the buy-back) and that Hyperion should hand over the source code.

This was mentioned by Bill McEwen half a year ago and they obviously haven't found a solution yet.

For all we know Amiga could very well have the law on their side.

I guess ACK have the sources to OS4, will port it to the new board and launch Amiga's new hardware product along with OS4... It's certainly not impossible...

@Mikey_C

Well there was this buy back clause that Amiga state they used. I find it weird that it was even there as it was not that much money needed to buy it back.

Even if Amiga wins and Hyperion has to hand everything over, who's to continue development of AmigaOS. I doubt many of the original authors of OS4 would be interested.

Also will Acube even be interested in wasting time on a company that is constantly suing their partners, who else should deliver the hardware... ack?? Guess I cant wait that long.

I wonder when Adam will stand before the court..

(self-moderated)

@all

This is a bad sign there is no doubt, but we don't know anything much at all.

The dispute has got out of hand, to what degree is the question.

Unfortunately, I think Hyperion may have the weakest case, legally speaking, especially in a US court.

If it really becomes hard ball, OS4 will be the worse for it, Hyperion's team have done such a great job it would be disastrous for this to be harmed.

It depends on how much Hyperion and Acube may have winged it, as to how much harm has been done, I suspect because it is a "trademark infringement, trademark dilution, unfair competition" and not a IP one it may be about agreements between Acube and Hyperion. In regard to AmigaInc and ACK.

That at least would be a lesser disaster.

Worse the real prize are not these boards, but AOS4 running on PS3 and that needs Hyperion on side as I understand these things.

More details would be needed, but it does not look good, especially now when we were expecting some good news. The only other option is that AmigaInc has gotten itself in a position to come out from behind, and hence wants nothing in the way for its plans.

My point remains that the Amiga community is so small it hardly matters in board production terms, and the OS could well do with several different boards being made available. Personally I like the SAM specification for a whole lot of reasons but mostly its passive cooling, which could put it places where nothing else could.

ACK might be a nice spec for a fast desktop. Compromise would be best - market the SAM as an Amigian domestic server, and embedded system board.

@GregS

http://www.merlancia.us/amiga-hyperion/decmcewenshow_case_doc.pdf

Full case disposition.

@Mikey_C

in any case this is the word End to the diatribe Amiga-Hyperion... I hope only that the second one will be the final winner..

@Mikey_C

Take a look at 15 on page 6 of the PDF document.
It's now quite clear why AmigaInc needs proof of advertisements and sales figures from ditributors. They will need it for this lawsuit.

I hope that no-one will hand out every information to them that could help thim against Hyperion.

For some strange reason they also believe that it's because of them that the Amiga "have garnered a cult-like following".

Something tells me that Ack is just being used for this court case to "prove" to the judge that they are still using the Amiga trademark and actually delivering product to their "cult-like" followers. As soon as the judge has ruled in favour of AmigaInc then I'm sure that for some unclear reasons his license is withdrawn.

We all need to remember a whole heck of a lot that no one is mentioning. First of all, the original agreement was done with hyperion under the leadership of a man who is no longer leading that firm. Business relations might have gone south as soon as he left the helm. We don't know anything regarding this, and it is an essential bit of information should any of us have any chance at all of being accurate in our guesses. This is just a sampling of what we don't know about this, so would it be possible to just not go off the deep end? Just wait and see what comes about.

"Hyperion's recent attempts to exploit Amiga's most valuable assets - its intellectual property - without license or permission, prevent Amiga from capitalizing on the opportunity to re-establish itself as a leader in the computing world..."

Sure, it's Hyperion's fault the Amiga is not the leader!
We were soooo close... and the computing world could have been led by even worse leader than Micro$oft... LOL

@Mikey_C

[zoom out from pdf file]

[zoom out through the window]

[zoom even further out and see a beautiful earth from space

[scroll the earth so that Europe comes in sight eventually]

[stop and pause for a moment]

[zoom in central Europe]

[zoom in further into Belgium]

[zoom into a house complex and into that window]

[zoom in front of a table]

[frame in - a man sitting behind the table]

"Spot on, Hyperion!"

...

One can only judge by knowing the full story...

Having read all the material from Amiga now... It does seem like they have a good case. Perhaps we will see Hyperions statement in a few days.

Hopefully, this will be over quickly and we can all get on enjoying OS4. Bill has stated that he has a fine relationship with the Friedens so I see no reason that they can continue their work on the OS under Amiga, Inc...

Should they wish so...

@Skov
Quote:
AmigaOS 4.0 is a derivative work of AmigaOS 3.x. Hyperion was contracted to do the 4.0 version which is now complete. Amiga Inc. now wants to ship a new product based on the 4.0 version of AmigaOS. They happened to partner with ACK Software Controls but it could have been anybody. When Amiga Inc. has the sources and necessary rights, Amiga Inc. will get OS4 ported to their new hardware. It makes sense that ACK would do the porting but it could be anybody technically. Then Amiga Inc. can ship the new OS4 based products which they developed in partnership with ACK.

What I'm trying to say here is that ACK will only have the sources if that is required. Let's not start down the path of pointing at ACK as a thief or similar. Amiga Inc. wants to ship new product and it is Amiga Inc. that needs the AmigaOS sources and rights so they can do so. It just happens that ACK is their partner at this point in time. Amiga Inc. is responsible and you cannot delegate responsibility.

[speculation]
Personally, I'm speculating this court case is another negotiation tactic to force the final resolution of their contract once and for all. Neither side really wants it to go before a judge so I would expect and hope this will be resolved before that happens. While the court case drags on I would expect neither side can ship any OS4 based products so it makes sense it is resolved sooner rather than later. I suppose Hyperion could launch a counter-suit or fight it until the judge rules but why bother for a product with a very uncertain future anyway.
[/speculation]

@geennaam
Quote:
Amiga Inc. have been gearing up lately with securing funding, trademark registrations, enforcing their copyrights and trademarks and partnering with ACK. It sure looks like to me like they want to ship some OS4 based products and perhaps that is the point.

Maybe, just maybe, Amiga Inc. want to sell some AmigaOS 4.0 based computer systems and that's it. Madness!

@ssolie

Quote:

I have no intention of calling ACK - or anyone - a thief. He has been involved in OS4. Perhaps he already has the source and the porting process could be underway. Of course, on behalf of Amiga, inc. I don't know, but I can speculate as well.

And I didn't call him a thief. In fact, I said Amiga might have a strong case. It looks that way.

Hopefully this will all be resolved soon.

Details, details, folks!

December 20, 2006 the license agreement is terminated.

December 24, 2006 Hyperion announces AOS4 final.

During the following months, Hyperion and ACube announce a worldwide distribution agreement outside of Amiga, Inc.

April 26, 2007 Amiga, Inc. sues Hyperion.



Certainly, there are more details that are essential to an accurate knowledge of the situation, but from what I can see in the above details, I am having a real problem seeing how Amiga, Inc. can be faulted here.