Belgian company Hyperion Entertainment CVBA (formerly Hyperion Entertainment VOF), was founded by "Intellectual Property litigator" [303] Mr. Ben Hermans, who was also the managing partner and later a director, and engineer Mr. Evert Carton in 1999. Mr. Evert Carton would later distance himself from the company. Current ownership details do not appear to be public record, but multiple sources indicated that as of June 2019 Mr. Ben Hermans (later Ben Hermans BV) was the almost sole proprietor, with a 96.88% stake [285]. At the time, other shareholders included Mr. Timothy De Groote and Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson [295][382].
According to a June 2021 filing backdated to December 31, 2019, the same 96.88% of shares was transferred from Mr. Ben Hermans personally into a company named Ben Hermans BV [354]. In describing the transaction as part of a conflict of interest disclosure (last page of document [354]), Mr. Ben Hermans explained how "Based on the positive interim results of [Hyperion Entertainment CVBA] in 2021 as well as the total turnover to be expected for 2021, the operation is undoubtedly in favor of [Ben Hermans BV]". Any mention of the ongoing legal proceedings and the related costs and risks (allegations of trademark and copyright infringement, request for damages by the Amiga Parties, etc.) was conveniently missing from the same.
Between 2003 and 2019, Mr. Ben Hermans was also an associate partner at Brussels firm Monard Law [252]. After allegations of incompatibility between the legal profession and the director role in Hyperion Entertainment were raised, the CEO title was handed over to Mr. Timothy De Groote again at the end of 2016 [255]. In June 2019, following further allegations of incompatibility and even fraudulent actions [281][268][278][377], it became known that Mr. Ben Hermans was "fired from Monard Law" [284].
Mr. Timothy De Groote is employed as a slaughterhouse cleaner and warehouse worker [254], and is also a local board member [253] of Vlaams Belang, a right-wing populist and Flemish nationalist political party [256]. He has held various "Manager", "Managing Partner" and "CEO" roles on and off at least since 2003, when he took over all shares and roles of Mr. Ben Hermans [388] for the first time. Mr. Timothy De Groote has also been a director of Hyperion Entertainment CVBA since its conversion from a VOF entity in 2009 [376].
Between November and December 2019, Mr. Ben Hermans filed a lawsuit against Mr. Timothy De Groote [295]. In March 2021, Mr. Ben Hermans became the sole director of Hyperion Entertainment [300][303]. By becoming an administrator of a commercial entity (one in which he engaged in lawsuits against his own competitors and former clients [135], no less), Mr. Ben Hermans breached the Belgian code of deontology for lawyers.
In December 2024, Timothy De Groote again took over the role of CEO of Hyperion Entertainment.
While Hyperion Entertainment never employed any software developers (or ever had any employees whatsoever), the legal competencies at its core allowed it to conclude licensing agreements to port existing games to different platforms (e.g. from Windows to Amiga), and to outsource such porting work. Hyperion Entertainment was, thus, a "contract house".
As it struggled to sustain itself as a software business, litigation quickly became prevailing. Mr. Ben Hermans acting as an attorney for his own company started engaging against his former client Amiga [135], also with the crucial financial backing of British oil millionaire [232] Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson, who would later also become a shareholder of Hyperion Entertainment.
This led to two rounds of litigation:
While the 2009 Settlement Agreement [138] that followed the first legal case was a good outcome for Hyperion Entertainment, it left the Belgian firm as a mere licensee, rather than the owner, of Amiga's operating system and trademark assets required to sell AmigaOS 4.
With its accounts in a desolate state [261], having lost control of AmigaOS 4's "ExecSG" core [316], and with free legal services to itself as its main resource, in 2016 Hyperion shareholders started planning [391] to attack the Amiga Parties and Cloanto to trigger a "catch all" clause of the agreement, with the aim to become the new owners of the Amiga assets, rather than a mere licensee. This lead to an escalation of provocations, like the 2016-2017 attempted registration of trademarks such as "Amiga", "AmigaOS", "AmigaOne", "Kickstart", "Workbench", the "Boing Ball" logo, and "Amiga Forever", and to a second lawsuit against Amiga (who was not involved in any litigation with Hyperion during the 2009-2018 period). As commenters had already theorized [386], "This seems to be the only logical reason why Hyperion Entertainment CVBA sued all three Amiga parties (Amiga, Amino, ITEC) in March 2018. There was no logical explanation other than the fact that Hyperion wanted to cause a default of at least one of them and thereby trigger this clause." The 2016 emails that emerged in March 2025 would later confirm this [391].
In its legal onslaught against the Amiga companies and their partners ITEC and Cloanto, leveraging the prestige of the owner's legal background and the money of its patrons, Hyperion Entertainment engaged the services of no less than 13 different US law firms:
William A. Kinsel, PLLC of Seattle, WA (2007-2009)
Moritt Hock Hamroff & Horowitz LLP of Garden City, NY (2009)
RatnerPrestia, PC of King of Prussia, PA (2017-2023)
Sullivan Hazeltine Allinson LLC of Wilmington, DE (2017-2021)
Perkins Coie LLP of Seattle, WA (2017)
Barclay Damon LLP of Syracuse, NY (2018)
Lee & Hayes, PLLC of Spokane, WA (2018-2020)
Attorney West Seattle, PS of Seattle, WA (2020-2021)
Lowe Graham Jones PLLC of Seattle, WA (2021 and 2023-2024)
Bamert Regan PLLC of Seattle, WA (2021-2023)
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC of Pittsburgh, PA (2024)
Alger Law APC of Santa Barbara, CA (2024)
Practus, LLP of Leawood, KS (2025)
Additionally, and in breach of the 2009 Settlement Agreement [138] where such conduct is defined as a "Hyperion Prohibited Action", in 2016 Hyperion Entertainment started engaging multiple European law firms to register for itself the marks of its Amiga competitors:
TMark Conseils of Paris, France
Dr. Kunz-Hallstein Rechtsanwälte of Munich, Germany
Krystyna Żurawska of Warsaw, Poland
De Simone & Partners Srl of Rome, Italy
Ignacio Temiño Ceniceros of Madrid, Spain
In 2009, Hyperion Entertainment VOF was converted into a Limited Liability Cooperative Company (CVBA) in spite of having accumulated debts amounting to more than 300,000 euro, and thus not meeting the minimum capital requirements to set up a CVBA.
In 2015, Hyperion Entertainment was declared bankrupt [233] upon request of the tax collection agency.
In order to hide from the government the fact that it was in breach of net capital requirements, Hyperion Entertainment CVBA chose not to (ever) file its yearly accounts. But this violation too would not go undetected forever. On October 12, 2017, Hyperion Entertainment had its business license revoked [241] for failing to file accounts for three or more consecutive years (2009-2016), and was radiated [242][263][264] from the Belgian business registry.
Since at least since 2016, Hyperion shareholders had been planning [391] to attack the Amiga Parties and Cloanto to trigger a "catch all" clause of the 2009 Settlement Agreement with the Amiga Parties, with the aim to become the new owners of the Amiga assets, rather than a mere licensee.
In spite of not being duly registered in the Belgian Corporate Register [265][263] and thus not meeting the criteria to file a lawsuit, in March 2018 Hyperion Entertainment started a new series of lawsuits against various Amiga parties (Amiga Delaware, Amino aka Amiga Washington, ITEC, Cloanto). This followed in the steps of the 2016 plans [391], but also resulted in bringing the Amiga Parties and Cloanto closer together, leading to the 2019 acquisition.
Although Hyperion Entertainment later filed its accounts for fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017 [257][261][279], as of this writing (April 2025) it has yet to file accounts for 2009-2014 and 2022-2024. The 2015-2017 filings further revealed how its debt had risen to more than half a million euro already in 2015 [257][261], and how the debt kept increasing by more than 40,000 euro per year, even without the burden of active lawsuits.
According to the Belgian Companies Code, which sets a minimum requirement of 6,200 euro for the net assets of a CVBA, Hyperion Entertainment CVBA was an entity that should not have been formed in the first place, and which could be judicially dissolved at any time by a public prosecutor or by an interested party. This had been well known to all Hyperion shareholders since 2009, as the VOF to CVBA conversion document [376] included a warning by the accountant, Ms. Sarah Marteyn: "The net assets according to this statement amount to -322,897.13, which is less than the minimum capital required for the formation of a limited liability cooperative company (CVBA). Under penalty of liability on the part of the directors, the transaction can only take place subject to additional contributions." A similar warning was included in the minutes of Hyperion's special general meeting of June 12, 2017: "... the net assets have fallen below the amount of EUR 6,200.00. Any interested party may demand the dissolution of the company before the court... Note is taken of the proposal to increase the capital by contribution of debt. After deliberation, the shareholders unanimously decide to adjourn this at a later date when there is a better view of the company's financial situation." (In truth, the net assets never did "fall below" the threshold, as they never met the required amount.)
In August 2018, i.e. right after completing its late filings of the 2015-2017 accounts [279], and knowing well that the filing itself would trigger a government action based on the violation of net capital rules (which it did), Hyperion Entertainment commissioned audit agency BB3 to prepare a document to back the conversion of debt (including amounts owed by the company to Mr. Ben Hermans for past legal work) into new shares. This documentation [382] was presented to the government later in 2018, and resulted in the "contributions" that allowed Mr. Ben Hermans to increase his ownership of Hyperion Entertainment CVBA to 96.90% in 2019. While Mr. Ben Hermans would later blame legal steps taken by Cloanto and Amiga in 2019 for the dilution of the shares owned by other shareholders, the reorganization leading to his near-complete ownership had been prepared and presented to Belgian tax authorities already in 2018, and had been a well-documented requirement since 2009.
On March 19, 2024, a bankruptcy proceeding was opened against Ben Hermans BV [384]. As Ben Hermans BV is the majority owner and director of Hyperion Entertainment CVBA, this means that both companies are managed by a court-appointed insolvency curator.
More details to be added.
This provisional section was added here as the relationship between various entities affiliated with Hyperion Entertainment became more clear.
While this section is being reorganized, more information is available in:
Following a stageworthy [268][278] secret 2010 agreement [377] between Mr. Ben Hermans and Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson, British company A-EON Technology Ltd was set up to replace Belgian company A-EON Technology CVBA (co-owned by Mr. Ben Hermans and Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson [322]). Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson and his wife Ms. Christine Dickinson would own 50% of the new business, while Mr. Matthew Leaman (dba "AmigaKit") would own the remaining 50% [321].
By 2012 the British partners were conspiring with their Belgian affiliate to alter the trademark legal footnotes so that these would no longer credit Amiga, Inc. (as required by the 2009 Settlement Agreement [138]): "In negotiating for the purchase and license, [Mr. Matthew Leaman] asked Hermans in an email on March 12, 2012, whether he should attribute ownership of the trademarks as follows: 'AmigaOS and Boing Ball logo are trademarks of Amiga, Inc. as licensed from Hyperion Entertainment CVBA. All rights reserved.' Hermans replied the next day, 'With respect to the license text, I would suggest "Produced under license from Hyperion Entertainment CVBA. AmigaOS and Boing Ball logo are valid trademarks. All rights reserved." At this point in time, Hyperion does no longer wish to refer to Amiga Inc as owners of the trademarks...'" [301] British affiliated firms A-EON Technology Ltd and Leaman Computing Ltd dba "AmigaKit" thus modified their texts, removing the references to "Amiga, Inc." [324].
While the untenable financial situation of Hyperion Entertainment remained unknown to external creditors, such as the law firms that were continuing to provide legal services to Hyperion Entertainment in its war against Amiga, it was well known to its insiders.
In other secret agreements, in 2019 Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson, who also was a shareholder of Belgian Hyperion Entertainment CVBA [295][382], started preparing for a possible bankruptcy of Hyperion Entertainment by moving assets out of the troubled Belgian company and securing immediate access to the AmigaOS 4 source code [316][317].
In April 2024, as a bankruptcy of Hyperion Entertainment CVBA appeared to be imminent, Mr. Matthew Leaman described how "work has been done over the last 6 years in anticipation of this [bankruptcy] event happening" [387].
More details to be added.