Hyperion Entertainment's Silent Puppeteer

Introduction

As a Belgian source once said, "The lawyer is at the top, yet there's someone even higher: the one who holds the money." When I first read this article, it felt like a concise and up-to-date analysis I would have loved to write myself. Thank you, Nicola Morocutti of Passione Amiga for allowing us to translate and share his work.

Back Chat

We dare to quote Queen and one of their '80s songs to introduce this new column which presumably will not have a regular schedule, but which we will use whenever we have access to information or insights on "uncomfortable" topics or not publicly known, related to the Amiga world. Specifically, in this issue, thanks to an analysis of court documents and contracts conducted by an informant of ours who prefers to remain anonymous, we have accessed some information that sheds new light on the protracted dispute where the Amiga Parties, together with Cloanto, stand on one side, facing off against Hyperion Entertainment (the seller of AmigaOS 4) and A-EON (the maker of some AmigaOne motherboards) on the other.

Let's try to summarize the situation of this complicated affair that has been affecting the Amiga world for far too many years.

History

The history of Amiga has been characterized, as we well know, by highs and lows both before and after the bankruptcy of Commodore. Nevertheless, a passionate user base continued to support the platform over the decades despite the difficulties. The success of our magazine is tangible proof of this.

The intellectual property of Commodore/Amiga (trademarks, copyrights, and patents) was auctioned off in 1994 and first went to the German company ESCOM, then to the American company Gateway, and finally in 1999 to Amiga, Inc., financed by the billionaire of Finnish origins, Dr. Pentti Kouri. A new acquisition by Amiga Corporation in 2019, in which Mr. Mike Battilana (Cloanto) is also involved, remains blocked by Hyperion Entertainment.

Hyperion Entertainment vs. Amiga

The Belgian company Hyperion Entertainment, which is currently owned for more than 95% by the founding partner and litigation lawyer [303] Mr. Ben Hermans, came onto the scene starting in 1999 porting PC games to the Amiga. It then entered into an agreement [132] with Amiga, Inc. to port AmigaOS to PowerPC systems. A few years after the development of the new "AmigaOS 4" operating system began, a first legal dispute arose with Amiga, essentially related to whether or not the agreed payment of $25,000 had been made and whether the work had been delivered [318]. Hyperion Entertainment escalated the dispute by resorting to various formal aspects and matters unrelated to the porting agreement. With the premature death of Dr. Pentti Kouri in 2009, and thus without the funds and the will to continue the lawsuit, the affair concluded with a Settlement Agreement [138] between Hyperion Entertainment and the Amiga Parties (i.e., Amiga, Inc. alongside other companies in the group).

Deeply in debt [261] and lacking ownership [316] of crucial parts of AmigaOS 4, in 2016 Hyperion Entertainment began attempts to register trademarks such as "Workbench," "AmigaOS," "Kickstart," the "Boing Ball" logo, and "Amiga Forever" [258][259], listing them as valuable assets in their accounts. Pressed by the objections of Cloanto (developers of the "Amiga Forever" product), and in spite of the 2009 Settlement Agreement [138], in 2018 Hyperion Entertainment again sued the Amiga parties, which until then had not been involved in any hostilities.

[Photo: The AmigaOne X5000 system is covered by the 2009 agreement between Amiga and Hyperion]

One of the central elements of the legal case is the recent assertion, in words and actions, by Hyperion Entertainment, of having rights that go beyond what had been announced by all parties in 2009 [296], i.e., the right to publish AmigaOS 4. According to Hyperion Entertainment's new interpretation, the rights would now include the ability to use and license also previous versions of AmigaOS, such as 1.3, 2.1, and 3.1 (rights previously assigned by Amiga to Cloanto), as well as to freely register the trademarks which, according to the 2009 agreement [138], had been defined as being owned by Amiga (including those containing the word "Amiga," as well as the "Boing Ball").

The analysis of the documentation shared by our sources reveals that there is a grey eminence behind Hyperion Entertainment: Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson ("RTD"). A wealthy investor thanks to a fortune made with oil extraction and fracking tools [232], Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson is the founding partner and financier of A-EON (which develops and markets AmigaOne systems). Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson tied himself to Hyperion Entertainment from 2007 in a whirlwind of loans to support the legal actions against Amiga, then through a secret agreement signed in 2010 with Mr. Ben Hermans [268][278][377], until becoming a minority shareholder of Hyperion (with all the rights and obligations that entails).

In this already tangled situation, A-EON first became the main customer of AmigaOS 4, and then, through further secret agreements signed between 2017 and 2019, Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson first acquired full ownership [316] of the kernel of AmigaOS 4 (ExecSG, developed for Hyperion by the Frieden twins), and then also the co-ownership of all other elements [317] related to AmigaOS 4, complete with the right to access the source code.

The Involvement of Cloanto

Cloanto, an Amiga developer known for its activity in preserving and promoting the Amiga heritage with the Amiga Forever suite, became involved in the dispute around 2017 due to its relationship with the Amiga parties, with whom Cloanto sided. The dispute also involved formal aspects related to asset acquisitions and legal actions undertaken by various parties.

Various Issues

The 2019 agreements [316][317] were kept secret because, as the new owner or co-owner of the assets, Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson would have been required by the Amiga Parties to sign Exhibit 3 of the 2009 Settlement Agreement [138], something he seems not to intend to do, probably to avoid exposure and maintain a seemingly neutral position in the Amiga market.

After having failed to acquire the Amiga assets from ReedSmith/Pluritas, Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson went on to finance Hyperion's legal war against Amiga. Only his support (and the death of Amiga's billionaire financier, Dr. Pentti Kouri) made it possible for Hyperion to favorably conclude the first lawsuit in 2009.

Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson then continued financing the second lawsuit, in which Hyperion sued all Amiga Parties in March 2018. One of the documents we were able to review shows an expired legal invoice for which the lawyers warned they would stop representing Hyperion, apparently then settled by Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson himself, as seems to emerge from other documents. The usual well-informed sources claim that Mr. Robert Trevor Dickinson will continue to finance the lawsuits (through payments and loans) until the stock of PowerPC motherboards from A-EON/AmigaKit is exhausted. This is because he has invested more than 1 million dollars in these products which, presumably, he believed might remain unsold as a result of a legal dispute resolution that would limit Hyperion in the development of AmigaOS 4, even though Amiga always stated that it had no intention of blocking the development of AmigaOS 4 (which is not part of the lawsuit), focusing instead only on enforcing the 2009 Settlement Agreement on aspects such as trademarks and versions of AmigaOS prior to 4.

[Photo: Mr. Timothy de Groote and Mr. Ben Hermans (Hyperion Entertainment) and Mr. Trevor Dickinson (A-EON)]

Conclusions

The situation is confused and delicate, with the same people supporting (or appearing to support) both sides in the lawsuit probably causing more harm than they think they are avoiding. Hoping to have provided some additional elements for all of you to get an idea of the evolving situation and the more or less obscure plots surrounding our platform, we are confident that the legal dispute between the Amiga/Cloanto and Hyperion Entertainment parties unfortunately will not be easily resolved. As the court continues to examine the intricate details of the dispute, its conclusion will have a lasting impact on the community and the future of the platform. We plan to continue to provide you with further insights as soon as we have new material.

The above is a partially automated translation of the Italian original:
Morocutti, Nicola (2024). Back Chat. Passione Amiga (27), 47-48. ISBN 979-8872585275. https://www.passioneamiga.it/numeri/passione-amiga-17/
Edits: a date was corrected; a reference to a different article in the same publication was removed.