Amiga Case Designer Faces Intimidation

[cgutjahr]

Of course there is no Amiga sticker coming with the case.
[...]
Do they really think I was going to include Amiga stickers?

No, but strictly speaking you are using a registered trademark to advertise a commercial product. You can't do that unless you have a license for said trademark.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm just explaining what Barry is trying to say - he's not really good at all this computer business stuff, so I'm helping out whenever I can)

Edit: Ah, it wasn't Barry but Leo - missed that, sorry.

[cgutjahr]

Surely what The Daddy did was legally fine within "fair use".

Who decides that, you? A trademark has to be defended, period. Yes, as usual CUSA took care of it in the worst possible way, but there's no reason to make a major fuss about it. A decade ago, Ben Hermans prevented MorphOS coverage in German TV for the same reasons, AInc once wanted Amiga fan websites to officially license the name from them...

You're a moderator on AW - instead of moderating Franko for labelling other users as "scum" and "scumbags" (CUSA people are people too...), you congratulate him on "stepping forward" and then come over here to create even more drama ("Amiga Case Designer Faces Intimidation")...

FAIL.

@TheDaddy:

Congratulations on that case design. I'm not too keen on keyboard computers myself, but that's just an awesome achievement.

[cgutjahr]

A trademark does not have to be defended by people who don't even own it

According to the AInc/Hyperion settlement, Hyperion are entitled to protect the IP they licensed from AInc on their own ("...grant Hyperion the right and unconditional permission to enforce...") . Barry claims he has also been granted "the right to enforce the Amiga trademark IP". That might be a bogus claim (like many of his other claims), but you or me certainly don't know if it is.

As AInc is certainly no longer protecting anything, it's up to Hyperion and CUSA to defend the trademarks unless they want them watered down so much that they get useless.

CUSA defending anything isn't a problem, and them being idiots about it isn't news. You guys just love hating them so much, that you can't stop talking about them.

and even if it did, Leo explicitly stated that this was an act of petty revenge.

CUSA sucks. I know that, you know that, Darrin knows that. People have been yelling about it, threatening them with ritual suicide or declaring war on them for two ******* years now.

[cgutjahr]

Definately not you, that's for sure.  How about Amiga Inc?

See my reply to John. AInc doesn't defend anything these days - if CUSA is entitled to defend the IP, it's in their very interest to do so.

(not like this and not in this case, obviously - but that's no reason for this flamefest)

Edit:  In fairness, it isn't clear what I was congratulating Franko for

I really couldn't care less what you congratulate Franko for. He insulted other members, just go and fix that - it's your job, btw.

[cgutjahr]

They probably only paid for Commodore logo

No, they didn't. They had licensed the Commodore logo from Asiarim, who explained in all of its (publicly available) SEC filings that their single licensor CUSA - which was supposed to be their main source of income - hadn't paid yet. Asiarim started to go downhill towards the end of last year, while Barry/Dammy started to hint that CUSA might become the next owner of the trademarks ("Commodore trademark has a new daddy"). Currently, Asiarim and Commodore Holdings - the former owner of the Commodore trademarks - are fighting in court over the ownership of the trademarks.

IMHO, it's pretty safe to assume that CUSA didn't pay any licensing fees for the Commodore logos so far.

but as the Amiga trademark is dead

The "Amiga trademark" isn't dead. The one covering software has been cancelled by the USPTO, but that one was only filed in 2006, IIRC. During the rest of the Amiga's lifetime, there was only one trademark covering hardware - and that one is still alive.

So it could well be that Amiga Inc. have given the name out on a "loan" basis...

CUSA are still many months away from delivering actual Amiga branded product. The recent 'launch' of the Amiga Mini was just a press release and photoshopped pictures.

I'm simply assuming that Barry wouldn't pay upfront, he can't be that dumb.

Edit: Just saw on c-a.org that Barry claims the Amiga Mini cases will arrive 'real soon now' (tm), so perhaps payment is due sooner than I thought.