Jump to content
Have You Played Atari Today?
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store  

PikoInteractive

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    690

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

Posts posted by PikoInteractive

  1. Posted

     

    EXACTLY! And why this is such B.S. All of the images they flagged were for a logo they don't even own the trademark on anymore. Such a shady company. Please, anyone reading this, go unlike them from all their socials and don't ever buy anything from them again!

    Well you never know, they could have an assignment of rights document giving them right to the popular Colecovision logo. They could have just filed for Typeface only to have a more general protection and save some bucks.

     

    Publishers still need trademark notices ala Color Dreams, Wisdom Tree, Accolade, Tengen, etc.

  2. Posted · Edited by PikoInteractive

    My comments are based of assuming Coleco Holdings or River West Brands went through the legal means to acquire the name/logo for Coleco. Not too familiar with the full history of Coleco and hasbro. But If Hasbro bought them out, RWB must have acquired it from Hasbro as Hasbro is still doing business and they are in the toys/games industry. Same with Galoob.

     

    If they just applied for a dead/expired trademark and no one opposed it so they got it. Technically they own the mark and can do whatever they want with it; only entity that can come and cancel that mark is Hasbro. However, (and this is me saying something my IP lawyer mentioned), I think there is a 3 year period where if you do business as, or commercialize the mark etc etc. The actual owner would lose any right; it is basically considered abandoned and the new entity (or whatever) can keep using it.

     

    I'm not a lawyer, I just talk to one I have in retainer.

     

    I see 3 live trademarks for Coleco and one for Colecovision, Some for the logo, and some for typeface. Now I do see, on at least one that it was assigned from from Coleco Entertainment Corporation to Coleco Holdings/River West Brands.

     

    http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/assignment-tm-4866-0566.pdf

     

    So, that is at the very least the first thread to follow. Who was Coleco Entertainment Corp

    You can search the corporation on this site:

    https://icis.corp.delaware.gov/Ecorp/EntitySearch/NameSearch.aspx

    the File number is:

    4802369 - COLECO ENTERTAINMENT CORPORATION

     

     

    But I wont waste 20 bucks to get tax history etc on this lol. have fun.

     

     

    Edit: Also, just noticed that the Trademark for Colecovision is Typeface only. So if they didn't bought any assignment of copyright for the popular Colecovision logo. Technically you could use the logo to publish your carts.

    • Like 2

  3. Posted · Edited by PikoInteractive

    I think I can weigh in some helpful information.

     

    I feel like I am particularly familiar to this kind of topics for the nature of my role as a retro game publisher, and retro game community member.

     

    Is this Corporate Greed or Fan/community entitlement? Well a little bit of both.

     

    Unfortunately/fortunately We (or at least most of us) live in a country with a capitalist economy. Which basically favors whomever has bigger bucks and whomever thinks to protect/copyright/trademark/commercialize something first.

     

    In this case River West Brands (at least it is my understanding) has gone through the legal means to claim and exclusively use the name/logo for Coleco and Colecovision. This is an asset for them (investment) that they want to protect etc.

     

    So I understand if they want to shut down or go after projects that (may) infringes their trademark.

     

    But in this case I do believe that Coleco is going after the wrong individual (if the right complete story is being disclosed) a community fan page has the right to post, review, show, yada yada yada any picture, product, opinion, comment in regards the colecovision. It is fair use, and it is their right to do so. Even if they show nudity, they can do it. Because themselves are not claiming or impersonating Coleco Holdings; They are a Colecovision Fan page/club.

     

    What I do see is that the people that are commercializing these "Homebrew" games are at fault, and coleco should not take it out against the fan club; but against the people commercializing these games. Even though you can claim they are unlicensed or not sold by Coleco. They do show the popular Colecovision logo. That quickly will be identified as an attempt to fool consumers to think the product is being sold officially by Coleco. I am not saying that is what the publishers want to do, but that is the way an IP lawyer/judge is going to see it. So there are ways to promote/design your packaging in a way that you clearly show that the game is for the Colecovision console, but is not using the trademark without permission.

     

    Additionally, about 60% of the games on the picture are pirate/bootlegs in my opinion because they are unofficial ports of games from popular publishers (MAPPY, GALAGA, etc) this is bad because:

    1.- It is telling consumers that homebrew games are games that infringe in copyright, which are not (this is a whole other thread though)
    2.- If those publishers see the bootleg, they can quickly assume that Coleco Holdings is approving/selling these games, and come after them for commercializing their IP without permission.

     

    So my suggestion to the Fan Page, unfortunately, try to be less defensive and flexible to resolve an issue. I don't think you are at fault and should stand your ground to promote whatever you want to. However, I do suggest to try to promote homebrew publishers that develop and sell original content.

     

    My suggestion to Coleco, if you go after the community, you will have a very bad time. You will exhaust yourself trying to go after every little thing. I would invest my time in educating those publishers in what they can do and what they cannot do. May be do a Style Guide for them, so they know what they can put in commercial packaging.

     

    With Piko Interactive, I am very careful on how I approach copyright infringement. The more we grow and acquire rights of games, the more I have to ask "repro" makers and bootlegers to please stop selling the game, same with websites hosting roms. I try to be friendly and tell them they are not in trouble but they got to understand that we have invested a lot of money and we need to get it back. About 75% of the time they are cool and take it down and we go our ways, the rest of the time they get defensive and want me to provide proof. Which I tell them, I can, but he would have to talk to my lawyer. Usually those that get defensive stand down after that, and they go a head and try to burn me on forums and social media. However I try very much to be reasonable and not piss people off. But you can't make everybody happy.

    Coleco is new to both the retro gaming scene and the gaming industry so I'd give them a pass this time and spend all this effort trying to educate the publishers on copyright ethics to avoid problems.

    Anyways, this is my two cents

    • Like 8

  4. Posted · Edited by PikoInteractive

    I have a feeling if this thread dies out, Stop Drop & Retro will start to disappear into non-existence like Marty McFly was doing near the end of Back to the Future..

    Lol, he did called me pathetic Wannabe for having a PO box on a co-working space in Downtown San Antonio. May be he can do videos about that then?

  5. Posted

    When the console is being sold for $40, there seems to be rather a small profit margin once you take away $12 additional dollars in product cost.

    Anything NOAC costs about 4-6 bucks fully packaged in the quantities they buy. So 16-20, they sell it for like 23-28, etc.

     

    These are just approximate numbers, the converted might be cheaper. But should give you a general idea.

  6. Posted

    Gamertek, Yobo, Hyperking, everybody basically uses the same factories and rebrand their console. I can get that Retron 1 with a different case and color and custom packaging done if I order 1-2K units.

     

    So it will be the same solution (NOAC + internal scaling adapter) for everybody.

    Costs about 12 bucks to add that solution to any clone console.

  7. Posted

    I think people inches away from the bullshit and could not smell the bullshit are just as full of bullshit as the bullshitters in the first place

     

    never a customer, fan, praiser, or frankly aware of said parties, but even more questionable members of a remote 3rd party thread "smelled it"

     

    doesnt matter, never have been or will be a customer, not hating, not praising, just saying if you cant smell stank 3 inches away .... maybe there's something wrong with you

     

    This read like legalese.

    • Like 1

  9. Posted

    We know you are a good guy, but it's only too easy to draw similarities between your starry-eyed acquisition of GameGavel to Mike's starry-eyed acquisition of the Jag molds. I wish you all the luck in the world but I personally would just hate to see you throw good money after bad.

    Albert bought the Jag molds tho are you guys going to turn on the overlord?

    • Like 1

  12. Posted

     

    What part of, or how much of the GG entity did you buy? I'm honestly curious about it as I know you are not dumb and must have known about the other people aside from MK who have legit claim to partial ownership of GG. I'm wondering what happens to them VS what you now own out of the purchase of whatever it is that now makes GG yours. Do they still have stock in what you are now have the majority stake in with your purchase or maybe did you assume the debt to those other owners with the purchase? Again, this is an honest curiosity and not a negative dig in any way. I'm sure many other people would love to know this stuff too so this might be a good place to let this stuff be publicly known.

    I'm not ready to release publicly our deal details, but you are welcome to reach to our lawyer. If not, just wait a couple of weeks I'll address everything.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    Wisdom Tree didn't need to be turned around. It was fine, just stagnant and unused. That is like saying a decent retired football player (Wisdom Tree) who finished his career long ago should be compared to a shitty current player (anything MK) with no skill and a bad rep just cause the same agent (Piko) has convinced them both to do signings and wants to feed the public they have the same value at the table, which they don't. Comparing them is figuratively and literally Heaven and Hell.

     

    Meh, I've gotten death threads for owning Wisdom Tree projects, no death threats yet on GG, we shall wait! ;) Anybody wants to make a betting pool?

  15. Posted

    ^^^^^ this ^^^^^

    Piko, you have a good reputation, you should leverage it, rather than hiding behind anonymity or other new brands. Even though association with GG makes me question your judgment.

    Yeah I should have posted who is running it and what contributors I have, just really didn't think of that because I was trying to put together a well thought newsletter. Next time I send something I'll give out a full lay out of what is happening/happened.

     

    Regarding judgment, everybody questions my judgement with my acquisitions. Noah's Ark, Duke Nukem 3D Genesis, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. But for me to pull the trigger is because Im sure I'm going to hit a target.

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

    Thanks for the heads up. I dug up the "nocheckpoint" message in my Yahoo spambox and promptly checked the "not spam" button. Unfortunately it takes more than one guy to retrain a spam filter run by a multinational corporation... :thumbsup:

     

    Piko, I hope you realize by opening your mouth, you're basically in the position of Indie Jones right after he fell into the snake pit. You'll figure a way out, just don't lose your hat! :grin:

     

    Come one! We turned around Wisdom Tree, I think this challenge is just a bit more difficult ;)

    • Like 3

  17. Posted · Edited by PikoInteractive

    The site has potential, it is a good idea, something that I thought to do during my college years where I sold heavenly on ebay to support my self (mostly retro games) Ohh the horror stories on ebay. But well, it was already done; I remember wanting to buy gamemonster.org from a guy at Nintendoage.com because it was a similar concept (although this one was more like Craigslist); but sale never went through.

    The site needs massive work and a lot of time invested to make it work again. SEO has some potential, but again lots of work to turn it around.

    It will be mainly incorporated for a new concept store I been toying with the idea for a couple of years, that I think people, stores, homebrewers, developers will appreciate ;)

  19. Posted · Edited by PikoInteractive

    Hey Guys Before This grows like wild fire, I should probably apologize, It is a new project of mine that I'll be funding. Didn't mean to be intrusive, Mike Kennedy is not involved. I am launching that site as a project to consolidate info on best retro gaming scene projects, some retrospectives and behind the scenes info.

    Eventually I want to turn it into a yearly magazine or bi yearly magazine. I plan to have smaller free zines issues etc.

    Again, I Apologized, I tried to be the least intrusive on the email as possible etc.

    Info I got as I am buying out gamegavel (gamerspots too and hoping some other stuff) as-is I think it could be a cool tool and I plan to turn it around. As we work in Piko by Rescuing old unreleased/unfinished games, I plan to do the same for Gamegavel (and some other brands, but that is for another thread)

    Idea for nocheckpoint came when I started investigating real hard a couple of gaming giants that went bankrupt. I found all this cool and crazy information on SEC archives and the US Federal Archives office.

     

    Another thing I'd like to mention is that everything mentioned in the newsletter was not paid advertising (aside from our current project) I asked about 12-15 people about projects they'd like to share etc. Only featured the ones that actually gave me a who, what, when and where (I guess other people where too lazy).

    Again I apologize, but I also want you to tell me (as I ask in that newsletter) what do you think of the current state of retro gaming, your opinions, comments, ideas etc. I see the scene rapidly changing and there is a gut feeling (not good) and I really want to understand and know what is going on and what to do to keep the fire burning.

    If I bothered you, I am sorry, I'll give you a free slap in the head voucher if we ever meet in person. You may click spam if that is what you felt I sent you, let me know and I'll personally unsubscribe you.

    Cheers!


    • Like 3

  22. Posted

    Also a couple others I thought of,

     

    Corridor 7 and operation bodycount from capstone.

     

    The Catacomb 3d series now owned by http://flatrocksoft.com/based on the site it looks like they are in fact looking to offload the IP

     

    Amberstar and Ambermoon or any of Thalion Softwares games I think these are all in the public domain now tho

     

    Aware of Catacombs, but I think price is a bit too expensive, since they already released on GOG.com and pretty much have made anything those games were going to make.

     

    Corridor 7 and Operation Bodycount are on my radar, mainly to do the same we did with SNA3D!

     

    Thalion I think was acquired by a German Magazine, along with Lionheart Amiga, which have never answered my emails :/

     

    Not familiar with Amberstar and Ambermoon.

     

     

    @Zzip - We exploit the IP, port games, try to do cool stuff.

     

     

  23. Posted

    Itll never happen but would be awesome if someone could pry the rights to Ultima from EA. I loved that series.

     

    Also I always wished the FPS ZPC(zero population count) had gotten a sequel.

     

    Also the old FMV games from rocket science games (loadstar, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Wing Nuts)

     

    I just sent an email like 2 days ago to the director of Red Ant, so Wing Nuts is not that far-fetched!

     

    EA would be impossible to deal with lol.

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    I have a project for Piko, to find the owners of old video games and buy the rights.


    I have been able to find and buy the rights of DOS games like The Humans, Viking Child, Jim Power, and Alien Rampage!


    I am interested in finding more, specially if they have Amiga, Atari ST, and other retro platforms ports.


    Any suggestions? There are a couple I liked from Korean devs, but is hard to break the language barrier to do the tracking down!


    Any beat'em ups, run and gun, action, rpg, or adventure you may suggest?


    Thanks!


AtariAge
Forums
Store
General
Follow AtariAge

Copyright ©1998-2021 AtariAge

×
×
  • Create New...