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avatar_Gryzor

Who's got the rights for Amsoft?

Started by Gryzor, 08:02, 04 May 17

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Gryzor

Morning guys!


So yesterday I was having a long discussion with a friend on the state of affairs regarding remakes and legal issues *cough*Nintendo*cough* and we got wondering - if the closest to a mascot that the CPC has is Roland, who would have the rights for those titles? I know some (all?) were produced externally and published by Amsoft, but what happened with Amsoft and who holds the rights now? Would it be Amstrad again?


Just curious...

Shaun M. Neary

I would assume Sky/BSkyB at this point.


Basically the Amsoft name was retired by Amstrad in 89, but still had rights to the name. However the Amstrad company itself was bought out by Sky in 2007, so one would assume all registered trademarks came with the package deal. Now there could be a chance that Amsoft might have been a limited trademark which had expired beforehand, in which case if someone else was to come along and trademark the name, there'd be nothing stopping them.


A similar case happened with WWE. Back when they were WWF, they had trademarked 'Superstars of Wrestling' for their weekend shows, but then shortened it to Superstars in the 90s. However someone in the UK came along and bought the 'Superstars Of Wrestling' trademark name after it had expired, and as a result, WWE now have to blur out and bleep out all references to 'Superstars Of Wrestling'. And they thought their problems were bad enough fighting the pandas to use the WWF name for older material as it was... but I digress.
Currently playing on: 2xCPC464, 1xCPC6128, 1x464Plus, 1x6128Plus, 2xGX4000. M4 board, ZMem 1MB and still forever playing Bruce Lee.
No cheats, snapshots or emulation. I play my games as they're intended to be played. What about you?

Sykobee (Briggsy)

#2
Trade Mark No.   Mark Text .  File Date .  Status .  Nice Classes . 
UK00001211033 .  Amsoft .  18/01/1984 .  Dead .  09 . 


UK00001211034 .  Amsoft   18/01/1984 .  Dead .  16 . 


UK00001332619 .  AMSOFT   21/01/1988 .  Dead .  42 . 

WO0000000757770 .  AMSOFT .  17/05/2001 .  Dead .  05 . 


Gryzor

Ah, the usual rights mess, then. I wonder what kind of agreements Amsoft used to strike with developers - because for instance, wasn't Harrier Attack Durell's? Speaking of which I do think there was a Harrier Attack remake a few years back. Maybe their agreement was such that rights reverted back to the initial developers afterwards, but who would know by now...


@Sykobee : haha I love the last one: Pharmaceutical, veterinary and sanitary preparations; dietetic substances adapted for medical use; food for babies; plasters, materials for dressings.  :D


Interesting, but it doesn't really help - obviously Amsoft is 'dead' but it doesn't say where the rights went...

AMSDOS

#4
Quote from: Gryzor on 09:37, 04 May 17
Ah, the usual rights mess, then. I wonder what kind of agreements Amsoft used to strike with developers - because for instance, wasn't Harrier Attack Durell's? Speaking of which I do think there was a Harrier Attack remake a few years back. Maybe their agreement was such that rights reverted back to the initial developers afterwards, but who would know by now...


@Sykobee : haha I love the last one: Pharmaceutical, veterinary and sanitary preparations; dietetic substances adapted for medical use; food for babies; plasters, materials for dressings.  :D


Interesting, but it doesn't really help - obviously Amsoft is 'dead' but it doesn't say where the rights went...


I wondered the same thing years ago regarding Hisoft Pascal 4t, which Hisoft developed originally on the Spectrum, though redeveloped to take advantage of some of the Amstrad specific features or access the firmware easily. Though I only contacted HiSoft when I discovered they were still running, though never heard back, so don't know if someday this will bite me in the butt or if their okay to have programs developed so long as there's so commercial gain from it. I'm simply trying not to assume anything, though that's quite difficult when you don't get a reply and they haven't exactly done the same as what Borland has done with their Turbo Pascal programs.
* Using the old Amstrad Languages :D   * with the Firmware :P
* I also like to problem solve code in BASIC :)   * And type-in Type-Ins! :D

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