The last of the Amiga patents expire in 2010

[guest3110]

The last of the Amiga patents expire in 2010. :-D

Muahahaha  :lol:

[persia]

Hopefully Amiga Inc will expire with them...

[sim085]

What does that really mean? What I mean is; What will happen when the last Amiga patent expire in 2010?

[save2600]

I believe that partly means another computer manufacturer can come along and "borrow", proprietary chip designs, chip names, circuit board designs/architecture, etc. for use in their own machines without liability.  

These modern "Amiga" incarnations only hold intellectual Amiga property more or less at this point. Branding, the Boing Ball trademark, but also the Kickstart, AmigaOS, Intuition, etc. Be nice if Amiga Inc. would do something meaningful - other than sell tip calculators of course  ;-)  

[guest3110]

They shall then be free for anyone to utilize. Public domain, for anyone's project. The only thing remaining under Amiga control will be copyright (of specific code, or order thereof), not the processes or ideas. One can then implement the same idea or working effects, but with their own code (not Amiga's). Any lingering disputes or stand-offs over the use of the old Amiga patents...will evaporate. Free and clear (even, perhaps, for Amiga Inc. itself, if it has anything unresolved there).

They, of course, have their name|brand, trademark, and copyrights (for specific sequences of code, and so on).

But 'work-a-likes' can then arise, without fear of lawsuit.

[Tenacious]

It's fun to think about how this will affect projects like Amithlon and Aros.

[recidivist]

 So could an enterprising  manufacturer in say,China, produce copies of the hardware ?
I suggest  a run of A3/4000T AGA  and update the CPU card to a fast PPC.

[Piru]

It doesn't mean anything at all.

The last patent that had any meaning at all (read: toggling multiple selection within single menu session) expired some time ago already.

Patent != copyright or trademark either, so this doesn't mean that you can copy Kickstart ROMs or use Amiga trademark.

[orb85750]

Piru wrote:
It doesn't mean anything at all.

The last patent that had any meaning at all (read: toggling multiple selection within single menu session) expired some time ago already.

Patent != copyright or trademark either, so this doesn't mean that you can copy Kickstart ROMs or use Amiga trademark.

So true, and so unfortunate that the copyrights and trademarks are being held hostage by someone that appears to care far less about Amiga than most of us care.

[guest3110]

from Piru:

Patent != copyright or trademark either, so this doesn't mean that you can copy Kickstart ROMs or use Amiga trademark.

That's right. Can't touch their trademarks or copyrighted code (i.e., specific form in which the idea is implemented), but the idea is soon to be free to be RE-implemented with one's OWN dreamed-up code (whatever gets it to work).  :-D

[SamuraiCrow]

Well, digging up this old thread.  What DAY does the last Amiga chipset patent expire?

[Hell Labs]

So could an enterprising  manufacturer in say,China, produce copies of the hardware ?
I suggest  a run of A3/4000T AGA  and update the CPU card to a fast PPC.

Too many old chips out of production...

Yeah, I want to know when "natami/minimig legality day" is too.