Classic Amiga patents...

[SKAN]

I was wondering who the hell is the owner of Classic Amiga hardware IP. Is it Gateway still?

Sorry guys, still dreaming of a C=1-like classic Amiga mobo...

Good morning,

The subject of "who bought what" versus simply licensing the trademarks from Gateway has always been of dubious question.  I would tend to guess that only Bill McEwen and Gateway's legal department really know the truth.  There are essentially two ways of looking at it though;

1) If Amiga Inc "bought" the trademarks to patents and everything Amiga, then they own it.

2) If Amiga Inc "licensed" the trademarks and/or patents from Gateway (which is more of the direction in which I'm leaning based on comments by McEwen to the UGN at the last Saint Louis Amiga show), then you can absolutely bet that it was done in an exclusive manner so that only Amiga Inc has the right to use them.

Wayne

[bloodline]

SKAN wrote:
I was wondering who the hell is the owner of Classic Amiga hardware IP. Is it Gateway still?

Sorry guys, still dreaming of a C=1-like classic Amiga mobo...

As far as anyone is aware, all the Amiga patents have now expired. Gateway are the owners.

All that is left now are the Amiga trademarks... of which I think only the "Amiga" name in and it's use in relation computer equipment (maybe even just software now) is still maintained, one would presume by KMOS.

If you want a C=1 like Classic amiga there is nothing stopping, there never has been. You would not need to use the original patents to program up a couple of FPGA's to mimic the functions of the Amiga chipset. Though to do so would be pointless, complex and expensive... Running UAE on a cheap PC would be far more senible :-)

[HyperionMP]

It is a matter of public record that Gateway retained ownership of the patents with Amiga Inc. only having a royalty free license to use them within the framework of AmigaOS.

It is also incorrect to claim that all of these patents have already expired. Patent protection lasts for 20 years and some of the patents date back to 1987 meaning that some will only expire in 2007, not before.

Furthermore, Amiga Inc. holds several US and EC Amiga trademarks.

This too is a matter of public record.

Thanks for the reply Ben.

[bloodline]

It is also incorrect to claim that all of these patents have already expired. Patent protection lasts for 20 years and some of the patents date back to 1987 meaning that some will only expire in 2007, not before

I can't find any submitted after 1983 :-?

[Darth_X]

HyperionMP wrote:

This too is a matter of public record.

Then could you please post a link to this public information? :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D

I believe he would be talking about the later Commodore inventions, such as AAA and the graphics subsystem -- the name escapes me -- unveiled in the 4000/1200.  These did not exist in 1983, and 87/88 would be about the right timeframe.  I would have even said maybe 89/90 or so, but will bow to Ben on this issue since he's probably much more knowledgeable on the subject than I am.

[bloodline]

Wayne wrote:
I believe he would be talking about the later Commodore inventions, such as AAA and the graphics subsystem -- the name escapes me -- unveiled in the 4000/1200.  These did not exist in 1983, and 87/88 would be about the right timeframe.  I would have even said maybe 89/90 or so, but will bow to Ben on this issue since he's probably much more knowledgeable on the subject than I am.

Hmmm, but the AGA chipset was nothing more than an enhancement of the OCS, nothing in there was new (or was it :-D) certainly nothing patentable.

Regardless, the later patents would be valueless compared with the original DMA, Graphics Processor and Right Mouse Click etc, patents that were revolutionary in 1983 when they were submitted.

[SKAN]

@bloodline

If you want a C=1 like Classic amiga there is nothing stopping, there never has been. You would not need to use the original patents to program up a couple of FPGA's to mimic the functions of the Amiga chipset. Though to do so would be pointless, complex and expensive... Running UAE on a cheap PC would be far more senible :-)

It seems that is not possible to replicate an Amiga on FPGA. Someone else tried without success...

What I mean is a super low-cost Amiga compatible: with today's technology you can have an "Amiga On A Chip"! Do you remember the SAM Coupe'? Same thing, but with Amiga compatibility instead of Spectrum!
UAE is not the way, sorry. Not only it lacks the feeling , but even REAL compatibility. Anyway until WinUAE 2.0
And you cannot have a *decent* PC to run a *decent* UAE on it for few bucks...

This thought came in mind because my Amiga is getting older and I don't wanna buy another expensive PC/Mac/whatever just to run an emulator on it.

All I ask for is a demo-machine and WHDload.
Simply.  :-D

[SamuraiCrow]

The patent on the datatypes in the OS would be later than 1983.  (Yes, I'm pretty sure they are patented.)

[bloodline]

SKAN wrote:
@bloodline

If you want a C=1 like Classic amiga there is nothing stopping, there never has been. You would not need to use the original patents to program up a couple of FPGA's to mimic the functions of the Amiga chipset. Though to do so would be pointless, complex and expensive... Running UAE on a cheap PC would be far more senible :-)

It seems that is not possible to replicate an Amiga on FPGA. Someone else tried without success...

What I mean is a super low-cost Amiga compatible: with today's technology you can have an "Amiga On A Chip"! Do you remember the SAM Coupe'? Same thing, but with Amiga compatibility instead of Spectrum!
UAE is not the way, sorry. Not only it lacks the feeling , but even REAL compatibility. Anyway until WinUAE 2.0
And you cannot have a *decent* PC to run a *decent* UAE on it for few bucks...

This thought came in mind because my Amiga is getting older and I don't wanna buy another expensive PC/Mac/whatever just to run an emulator on it.

All I ask for is a demo-machine and WHDload.
Simply.  :-D

Before you say any more, get yourself a £250 HP iPAQ and run UAE on it... flying across the atlantic with over a hundred Amiga games in my hand was a joy! The 8 hours went in a flash.

[SKAN]

Before you say any more, get yourself a £250 HP iPAQ and run UAE on it... flighing across the atlantic with over a hundred Amiga games in my hand was a joy! The 8 hours went in a flash.

So I guess PocketUAE is stable and cool enough? I should try a Dell Axim...

[bloodline]

SKAN wrote:

Before you say any more, get yourself a £250 HP iPAQ and run UAE on it... flighing across the atlantic with over a hundred Amiga games in my hand was a joy! The 8 hours went in a flash.

So I guess PocketUAE is stable and cool enough? I should try a Dell Axim...

I was using the 1st release, so I had 1 frame frame skip on, and I switched off the sound, but I was addicted to Megalomania and Lemmings :-)

Luckly I has spare batteries with me :-D

[itix]

There must be some... I looked into C= patents some years ago and there was all kind of weird stuff... I recall some of them were patented in 1985 or so. Mostly (now useless) HW related stuff but some patents regarding the Intuition too.