Hyperion Entertainment

Brussels  – April 2, 2023

Hyperion Entertainment is pleased to announce it obtained a sweeping victory in the US District Court of the Western District of Washington at Seattle in the litigation brought against Hyperion by Cloanto Corporation and the Amiga Parties (Amiga Inc., Itec, LLC and Amino Development Corporation).

The Court dismissed all of the remaining claims in this proceeding filed by Cloanto Corporation and the Amiga Parties against Hyperion Entertainment and found entirely in favor of Hyperion Entertainment by granting Hyperion's Motion for Summary Judgment as to all counts.

The instant case was initiated against Hyperion Entertainment on December 14, 2017 (!) when plaintiff Cloanto Corporation (later joined by the Amiga Parties) filed suit against Hyperion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York alleging Hyperion exceeded the rights granted to it by the 2009 Settlement Agreement thereby resulting in copyright and trademark infringement.

Hyperion Entertainment wishes to thank all of the AmigaOS 3.x and 4.x development teams as well as our beta-testers for continuing their work during the many years of litigation.

During these many years Hyperion Entertainment was always keen to bring this litigation to a negotiated outcome and still, to this day, remains of the belief that an amicable resolution between the parties bringing all remaining litigation to a close, would be in the interest of the Amiga Community as a whole.

A copy of the Court’s order of March 30, 2023 can be found here.

Brussels, December 31, 2017

Hyperion Entertainment CVBA was informed by US counsel that Cloanto has filed a claim in New York State in an attempt to invalidate and diminish the exclusive rights granted to Hyperion Entertainment on the basis of its settlement agreement with the Amiga Parties of September 30, 2009 which was confirmed by a stipulated judgment of December 14, 2009 by the US District Court, Western District at Seattle in case CV-07-0631.

Hyperion Entertainment regrets that its attempts to start discussions to reach a settlement with Cloanto - which were re-affirmed by a face to face meeting between the principals of both companies in Neuss, Germany during the Amiga 32 event - have failed and that Cloanto has once again decided to resort to legal action to deprive Hyperion of the rights granted to it.

Hyperion Entertainment is perplexed by the recent litigious attitude of Cloanto in view of the fact that for many months Cloanto offered AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition for sale together with its emulation package and collected commissions on the sale of AmigaOS 4.1 Final Edition.  

Hyperion Entertainment has never changed its position on the extent of its rights since the settlement of September 30, 2009 and has distributed several versions of AmigaOS with AmigaOS 4.1 for backwards compatibility purposes.

Hyperion has moreover always acknowledged and accepted the pre-existing limited license granted to Cloanto to distribute certain versions of AmigaOS as part of an emulation package as specifically set out in its settlement agreement with the Amiga Parties.

Hyperion Entertainment nonetheless hereby reaffirms unequivocally that on the basis of the aforementioned stipulated judgment it has the worldwide exclusive right to distribute and sublicense AmigaOS on a standalone basis or bundled with hardware (OEM license), either on a physical medium (such as a ROM or DVD) or electronically (digital download).

The same applies for obvious reasons to any improvements and upgrades of AmigaOS for both 68K and PPC which Hyperion Entertainment has released and is planning to release.

Whilst we deeply regret that once again substantial resources will need to be redirected away from development to litigation, Hyperion Entertainment has every intention to vigorously defend its rights in court and by doing so, defend the rights of our licensees.

Nevertheless, Hyperion Entertainment wishes all its current, past and future customers and partners a Happy New Year 2018!