AmigaKit still in business

[rabidgerry]

Realistically these days there is no excuse, with mail order bigger than it has ever been and more sophisticated, like Amazon telling me my order is 5 stops away. Not everyone has access to that kind of tracking but basic stuff like royal mail providing proof of postage etc (pretty sure that is no extra charge) or using a courier which will always have tracking ability should be utilized by these sellers.

And the communication thing not being great from these sellers is also not really acceptable, but they get away with it as they are catering for a niche market and know there will always be others to buy their stuff, and even those who have had negative experience will contemplate using them again purely as there are only a handful. So I don't see it getting better.

I have had pretty normal experience with stuff from Amiga kit and also waited a long a long time for things that were in stock also. No idea why the experiences varied as much as they did.

Amigastore.eu didn't respond to me when I had a query about something so that didn't fill me with much confidence and have never ordered from them because of that. Felt like I could have placed and order and just tumble weed would blow past my door as opposed to anything get delivered.

[Cymru]

My last order from AmigaKit was like I interrupted someone from a deep sleep and they had to be reminded after 10 days of the order; must be Alzheimer's...

In one of the previous posts, I wrote about Alinea's performance. They did not change the delivery organisation. They just shipped a new package and that arrived.
I consider them Safe.

[stylon]

Thought I'd chip in to give credit where its due. I've placed several orders with Amigakit over the past few months for both software and hardware and had fantastic service each time.

All the items arrived within a week of placing the order and when I had to email them (to get a download link) they replied within 5 minutes - at 7pm in the evening!

If they had been stocking OS3.2 they would have been my first choice...

[squirminator2k]

I placed one (1) order with AmigaKit just before Christmas, and my experience with them was so wretched I'll never order from them again. After a month of no word on my order and multiple emails, I tweeted about how disappointed I was. I got a response 15 minutes later that directly referenced (and, haha, clearly misread) my tweet.

I love the range of products AmigaKit offers, but their customer support and shipping practices are just awful.

[Radertified]

I don't like to speak negatively about anyone, but AmigaKit, what the heck are you doing? From Amiga Addict magazine on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amigamagazine/st...52211722981386

We've received an undesirable Trademark Opposition notification today from Amigakit Ltd - we simply applied to register our logo and Amiga Addict brand name... Any reason as to why you are trying to harm a community-led Amiga magazine that is helping the Amiga scene @amigakit???

Absolutely despicable behavior. Must everything in the community be tarnished by legal fights?

[amifan]

I saw this on the Discord channel today, it is really shocking, I considered AmigaKit to be a decent company but this really has put me off them, to be so petty and small minded that they they feel threatened by a magazine to do this and that is most likely giving them more sales. The Amiga scene does not need this kind of back stabbing.

[Bren McGuire]

the hipocrisy of this all, is that you all happily hype up and go and buy amigaos 3.2, which feeds another company that is another cog in the lawsuit/horseshit machine that the Amiga brand is.

get your act together, either support the amiga, or dont. the reason a vulture like amigakit pulls off this kind of shit is because bellends like us have created a "culture" where this is allowed and supported as long as we get something in return that we can somehow put in our Amiga computers.

dont buy from amigakit, dont get amiga forever, dont buy os3.2, be consistent and these things will disappear. it's enough time we play fools and give a pass to absolutely all of these acts. these "companies" must disappear.

shame on amigakit, but also on all the "community", which after a few weeks, will have forgotten about this, and will keep buying from them, or just not even care about it. this is NOT the first time amigakit pulls some shady shit like this off (remember amigapassion?? no of course you dont nobody talks about it anymore) yet here they are, in business, getting sales, and doing it all over again.

disgusted at everyone

Originally Posted by amifan

I saw this on the Discord channel today, it is really shocking, I considered AmigaKit to be a decent company but this really has put me off them, to be so petty and small minded that they they feel threatened by a magazine to do this and that is most likely giving them more sales. The Amiga scene does not need this kind of back stabbing.

[squirminator2k]

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

disgusted at everyone

Y'know, times may change, the internet evolves, communities shift and grow and develop. But it's reassuring to know that there will always be that One Guy (and make no mistake, it is always a guy) who decides to make a topic, any topic, about how much better he is than everyone else in his online community.

[stylon]

I don't get it. Why would they object to the name 'Amiga Addict'? Also what gives them the right to do this in the first place?

[mcgeezer]

I decided over a year ago not to buy anything from Amiga Kit when he registered the Amiga trademark, that and the fact that his customer service was quite appalling.

[clebin]

AmigaKit's response on Twitter:

Amiga Kit Amiga Store @amigakit
·
9h
Replying to
@amigamagazine
The TM7A form is *not* opposition. It is simply a formal standard mechanism to give us up to a month to communicate with Simulant Systems Ltd.

Amiga Addict Magazine @amigamagazine
·
8h
We are happy to communicate, thanks for clearing things up. So you're just threatening to oppose us then, rather than actually doing it?

FFS. I've always supported these guys in the past, I've met them and had great conversations, I've felt they're good blokes with their hearts in the right place... but this is total BS.

Opposition or not, this behaviour is aggressive as fuck. We saw this kind of behaviour with Amiga Store and Amiga Passion (didn't they register similar domains or something?) previously. Scary legal letters should never be the first course of action before even a friendly phone call or email with the parties involved. Aggressive, rude and anti-competitive.

I don't see how the Amiga Addict name could be confused with AmigaKit. I don't see what gives them the right to act as gatekeeper over the whole Amiga name, or why Amiga Addict need to communicate or run anything by them AT ALL.

What is going on with you guys? Will you pull yourselves together and stop sinking deeper into this trigger-happy litigious shit that plagues the Amiga community? Just because Hyperion does it, Cloanto does it, Amiga Inc. does it, blah blah, does not mean this kind of behaviour is morally acceptable. It's time you rose above it and made a decision to behave better towards other members of the community, or you will see the goodwill and custom that you've built up over decades crumble away. You have a choice at this point to be a good member of the community or continue this bunker mentality of trying to take ownership and fight against everyone else. It would start with a FULL explanation of what you think you're up to and preferably some desire to do things differently in future.

It gives me no pleasure at all to write this. I'm just really disappointed.

[stevelord]

Originally Posted by Radertified

I don't like to speak negatively about anyone, but AmigaKit, what the heck are you doing?

Probably a good idea to put some legal points into perspective.

1. Amiga Addict is owned by Simulant Systems Ltd.
2. Simulant Systems Ltd you may know from their kickstarter campaign to sell PC keyboards initially with Amiga (and other retro) marks on them.
3. Simulant Systems Ltd filed for a Class 16 trademark for the term "Amiga Addict".
4. Class 16 relates to printed materials.
5. AmigaKit Ltd have an existing Class 16 trademark.
6. When someone files for a trademark there's a 2-month period for objections to be registered. Where not opposed trademarks typically passes through.
7. Oppositions are formally submitted via form TM7a to the IPO.
8. AmigaKit Ltd filed a notice of threatened opposition. The date is the notice date, not the TM7a submission date.
9. Reading between the lines it was probably submitted close to the end of the two month period.
10. The TM7a doesn't commit Amigakit Ltd to opposing. It gives them an extra month to oppose if they wish.
11. Opposing the trademark will not prevent Simulant Systems Ltd publishing Amiga Addicts any more than the situation to date has stopped publishing.
12. The smart thing to do now would be for Simulant Systems Ltd and AmigaKit Ltd to talk to each other and resolve the issue. The obvious thing surely is for Simulant Systems Ltd to offer AmigaKit Ltd advertising space as part of an agreement covering how the mark is used and how Amigakit Ltd's mark is distinguished in exchange for not opposing.

Originally Posted by Radertified

Absolutely despicable behavior. Must everything in the community be tarnished by legal fights?

This isn't "the community". Simulant Systems Ltd undertook legal action that threatens AmigaKit Ltd's Class 16 trademark. Amiga Addicts did not file the trademark. Simulant Systems Ltd did. It's a trademark dispute between two companies over the use of "Amiga". We all know the drill by now.

If you'd like to see who has registered trademarks in the past, you can do so here.

I'm not saying any party is in the right. Far from it, it's depressing to watch. I'm just summarising the legal situation as people tend not to read past headlines.



Note to Mods: Maybe this bit on should be moved into a separate thread as this is about a trademark dispute, not service.

[clebin]

Originally Posted by stevelord

Probably a good idea to put some legal points into perspective.

Thanks for the context. Man, the Amiga is a minefield. I'd appreciate if AmigaKit filled us in with their side. I'm big enough to apologise if I've got it wrong but I do feel that escalating any previous dispute by using legal notices as a first point of contact is unnecessarily aggressive and cannot help. It's learnt behaviour by companies in the Amiga community that needs to change, because frankly the users are fucking tired of it and we have ownership the name just as much as any company in a moral if not legal sense.

[kriz]

Another reason to never support Amigakit again!

[Bren McGuire]

oh so i am the bad guy in this scenario? sure.
you seem to fail to note that i included myself in the narrative, as part of the community.

but sure go ahead and keep hiding your head in the sand. you're american, that's what you people love to do.

Originally Posted by squirminator2k

Y'know, times may change, the internet evolves, communities shift and grow and develop. But it's reassuring to know that there will always be that One Guy (and make no mistake, it is always a guy) who decides to make a topic, any topic, about how much better he is than everyone else in his online community.

[Bren McGuire]

thank you for this great summary. does not make this any less disgusting, but it makes it more clear, how much a "game of thrones" horseshit scenario is going on here with a stupid brand name

Originally Posted by stevelord

Probably a good idea to put some legal points into perspective.

[stevelord]

Originally Posted by clebin

I do feel that escalating any previous dispute by using legal notices as a first point of contact is unnecessarily aggressive and cannot help.

The 2 month limit sticks out. Being charitable about service, AmigaKit can be erm... slow with poor comms to say the least. It would not surprise me if they didn't notice the filing until close to the end of any period.

It's the same trademark class. If AmigaKit didn't object, then someone else filing something like say, "Amiga Kids" for childrens Amiga project kits could argue that prior filings were unopposed. When people say you can lose your trademark if you don't defend it, this is part of what's meant.

No Amiga magazine publisher (as far as I can tell from the IPO website) has filed a trademark with the UK IPO. We don't know why Simulant Systems Ltd decided to file, but that is legal action threatening AmigaKit Ltd's existing trademark. For once AmigaKit Ltd aren't the ones (yet, but give it time) being shitty here.

[dalek]

Originally Posted by stevelord

...For once AmigaKit Ltd aren't the ones (yet, but give it time) being shitty here.

No®, They are being shitty®, since they don't own the Amiga mark® which is registered to Amiga Corp. in computers.



They have no right to exclusively claim Amiga in print when it refers to the product Amiga.


Same way if I owned 'Coca-Cola Kit' in print I couldn't stop anyone else trademarking 'Coca-Cola Addict'

[Bren McGuire]

wait a second though mate
what does Simulant have to do with the magazine?
weren't they the ones who tried to MANY TIMES pass off some garbage chinese USB keybaords as Amiga keybaords?

are they somehow related to Amiga Addict, in which case, Amiga Addict also should go on the shitlist for trademark trolling?

Originally Posted by stevelord

It's the same trademark class. If AmigaKit didn't object, then someone else filing something like say, "Amiga Kids" for childrens Amiga project kits could argue that prior filings were unopposed. When people say you can lose your trademark if you don't defend it, this is part of what's meant.