Amiga Case Designer Faces Intimidation

[spirantho]

@TheDaddy

Glad that you're not being disheartened by the bullies!

If I get enough money together when it's out I may well get one myself.. the only real question is whether to put my Sam in it or to put a MiniITX PC in it and run AROS.
Argh - decisions, decisions!

Remember - non illegitimi carborundum - and they can yell and scream as much as they like, but the fact remains they only license the name Amiga, they have no rights to harass you.

Keep up the good work and keep us informed on progress!

[spirantho]

The truly amazing thing for me is that C=USA have completely missed an opportunity.

They sold some C64x's - not many, to be sure (going by the lack of activity on the official support forum) - but more than they will the Amiga Mini, because people aren't dumb enough usually to spend $1000 on a name - they need a USP (no, a name of a computer that died 18 years ago is not a USP to 99.9% of the world). Yet here they are and someone's done some really fine work in doing exactly what the Amiga community want - they've done something new, and relevant. Even people who dislike the keyboard computer are congratulating him on doing something so professional on his own and for his love of the platform, because they recognise the work done and respect the fact that he's doing something new.

Why aren't C=USA trying to talk to Lorriano and trying to license the design, or at least elements of it? He's done most of the hard work. If they did that they'd gain individuality, they could say they were helping a community member, they could say they were listening to the public. They could repair at least some of the damage they've already done. They would gain the all-important USP they need. Sure, only to a fairly small market, but they'd be a reasonable sized fish in a small pond - right now they're a very expensive minnow in a giant ocean of sharks.

I know where I'd rather be.

[spirantho]

But TheDaddy isn't selling a computer, he's selling a case. An unbranded case. He's made it quite clear that what stickers you put on it are up to the buyer.

[spirantho]

Actually, I think we should all say a big "Thank You" to Commodore USA.

Thanks to them, TheDaddy has got 10 times as much publicity as he had before they stepped with their Size 11s. This thread has had 7,600 views now on A.org, and the equivalent on AW.net has had several thousand also.

So thank-you, C=USA!

[spirantho]

community makes the impression of unity and that does not exist for a long time...

Actually, I think there really is a community, and quite a strong one at that.
The problem is that they tend to get on with being a community rather than spending all their time screaming and shouting about whose OS is better than whose, whose CPU is faster than whose, whose Dad could beat up whose Dad. That leaves all the noise to come from people who seem intent on re-starting the old Red vs. Blue wars of 6 years ago or whatever, so it seems much worse than it is.

As usual it's the minority that are the vocal ones, most people on this site are united by the fact that we all love Amigas - and there is still a community there, if you can seperate the wheat from the (very vocal) chaff.

[spirantho]

Which - if true - would mean that either Barry paid a lot for something that is worth $0.00, or else he actually didn't pay anything for it at all and wanted to make it seem like he did so he could tell everyone about how great he was for "uniting the Commodore and Amiga brands".
Interesting.

[spirantho]

"This search session has expired. " those links say.

[spirantho]

If that's correct then we can do what the heck we want with the "AMIGA" logo and there's absolutely nothing C=USA can do about it. That includes sticking it on AIO PCs or Sinclair ZX81s.
So what did Amiga Inc. license to C=USA? Or did they actually not license anything? According to that look-up, Amiga Inc. were the owners, but it's now abandoned and dead. Which means Amiga Inc. can't have licensed it to Barry or anyone else.

[spirantho]

But you know what this REALLY means...

What's most important of all....

It means....

.... we all need to go out and get more popcorn.

[spirantho]

Serious question, and I don't mean this is anyway threateningly....

.. but if Leo knew that C=USA didn't own the trademark, isn't what he did illegal?

Worst of all, because of his disclaimer in his signature that he doesn't represent C=USA, doesn't that make him personally liable?  Surely it's illegal to go around brow-beating people who want to use an expired trademark that you don't own anyway?

Edit: just to be clear, I'm not suggesting that anybody go and sue anybody else, far from it. I just want to know if this behaviour is actually illegal or not.

[spirantho]

As someone on AW.net has just pointed out, the trademark is only dead for software.

So just to be clear, the Amiga trademark IS still valid.

And you know what it's valid for?

(From the patents office)
"COMPUTERS, COMPUTER DISK DRIVES, RAM EXPANSION CARTRIDGES, COMPUTER MONITORS, AND COMPUTER MODEMS"

Strikes me that TheDaddy's case does *not* fall under any of the above. A case is not a computer, a disk drive, a RAM expansion, a monitor nor a modem.

In other words, he can call his case "an Amiga" in whatever style or font he wants. He can even use the logo with the red square if he wants, because that one has expired.

So there - C=USA licensed the rights to make Amiga computers, but NOT cases.

[spirantho]

Don't even need to do that. If they'd done like Asus (for example) did and license it for "G & S: parts for computers." it'd be different. But they were specific and they excluded computer cases.
The case can be called "Amiga". Just don't put a motherboard in it because then they would have grounds.

[spirantho]

That would be interesting actually. Ask them if you can license the name "Amiga" for your computer, tell them that you heard someone had an exclusive license to ALL computers bearing the name Amiga, and see what they say... if they say you can have it for a price, then C=USA do not have an exclusive license.

[spirantho]

They probably only paid for Commodore logo but as the Amiga trademark is dead Amiga Inc are fukt now and couldn't have sold it.

The best they could have done to avoid problems would have been replica cases, but I suspect C64x didn't make much of a profit hence VIC Mini/Amiga Mini bolloks

That's exactly what they can't do though.

The Amiga trademark is only dead for software. For hardware it's still alive, but not for cases. However, the trade-mark does cover disk drives.

I suspect this is why all the C=USA "bare bones" systems all come with blu-ray drives built-in. This way they can claim it's a disk drive, as they don't have the license to produce a case.

[spirantho]

Well it seems to me that the community should be more respectful of the rightful owners of the amiga IP.

Amiga is a strong, cutting edge technology and brand but if anyone can steal the name and put it on anything then its rightful owners won't be able to make a living out of it, much less bring it back to its rightful position as market leader.

Serious question (don't take this as an insult) but:

Does anyone really believe that the Amiga can these compete with and beat opposition of the likes of Microsoft, Google, Intel, Apple etc. etc.

Seriously? It's a genuine question.