Leuven, Belgium - May 1, 2007.
Whilst it is not Hyperion Entertainment’s policy to comment on ongoing litigation, we would like to reassure our customers (whom we wish to thank for their very numerous notes of support following the news) that development of AmigaOS 4.0 related components is still ongoing and will continue apace during the duration of the litigation with Amiga Inc.
Following over 18 months of unproductive negotiations with Amiga Inc. through our management and attorneys, we welcome the opportunity to finally present our case in a court of law which was regrettably the only remaining avenue after Amiga Inc. repeatedly and consistently stonewalled any attempt to resolve the outstanding issues (including the “Party Pack” and “I am Amiga Club” voucher schemes and the failure to acknowledge the intellectual property rights of third party developers) through mediation and binding arbitration.
Despite the failure of Amiga Inc. to secure access to the Amiga OS 3.5 and 3.9 source-code and indeed the reworked Amiga 3.1 source-code, Hyperion Entertainment has, in the form of Amiga OS 4.0, delivered a product which meets and surpasses all contractual design and development goals (e.g. full Amiga chipset independence), a fact which was previously acknowledged contractually and publicly by Amiga Inc. Under the 2001 agreement with Amiga Inc. Hyperion is entitled to all revenues stemming from distribution of Amiga OS 4.0 irrespective of the execution of the “buy in” clause which relates solely to subsequent versions (Amiga OS 4.1 and beyond).
We will therefore vigorously defend the claim which we consider entirely devoid of substance and we are extremely confident of a favorable outcome.
In closing, we would like to remind dealers and other third parties that distribution of Amiga OS 4.0 without the prior permission of Hyperion VOF and certain third party developers is illegal under EU, US and international copyright legislation and therefore entirely at their own risk.
