EdgeOfPortal Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 I’ve been trying to find as much info on this computer as possible, as for the past few years I’ve been very interested in it. The farthest I can get was that Radofin was liquidated in 1991, but nothing past that. If anyone has extra information, that’d be great. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnieg Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Interesting question, one I've looked into now and again over the years. First some legal background https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/articles/insolvency/the-consequences-of-intellectual-property-rights-when-a-company-becomes-insolvent The issues will be were any rights sold on? I'd hazard a guess that patents have expired. As to copyright, depends on the software on question, did Mattel games retain their original copyright for example? What about licensed properties i.e Tron and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons for example. Most of the hardware in the Aquarius was off the shelf except from memory the PLA, character rom and basic. Maybe someone as a list of Any patents related to the Aquarius that can be checked? I'd really like to see an opensource 8bit basic to replace the Microsoft one on old micros. Is is historical research or are you looking at developing something commercial? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeOfPortal Posted December 4, 2019 Author Share Posted December 4, 2019 49 minutes ago, barnieg said: Interesting question, one I've looked into now and again over the years. First some legal background https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/articles/insolvency/the-consequences-of-intellectual-property-rights-when-a-company-becomes-insolvent The issues will be were any rights sold on? I'd hazard a guess that patents have expired. As to copyright, depends on the software on question, did Mattel games retain their original copyright for example? What about licensed properties i.e Tron and Advanced Dungeons and Dragons for example. Most of the hardware in the Aquarius was off the shelf except from memory the PLA, character rom and basic. Maybe someone as a list of Any patents related to the Aquarius that can be checked? I'd really like to see an opensource 8bit basic to replace the Microsoft one on old micros. Is is historical research or are you looking at developing something commercial? It’s just historical research, I’m not developing anything commercial. I did find a company called Fobel International PLC that apparently owned 51% of Radofin after the liquidation, but I can’t find anything after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 (edited) If there were any patents they would have expired. With manufacturing there would have been stuff like moulds for the plastics, likely scrapped long ago. Trademarks for an Aquarius computer is probably up for grabs. I doubt there's any copyright on the character set but microsoft would still own their version of basic. Mattel made software/games for several systems including the aquarius. Except for some of the stuff developed in France I think it all got transferred to INTV in 1984 so it might belong to intellivision entertainment today. Edited December 4, 2019 by mr_me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BSRSteve Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 1 hour ago, mr_me said: Mattel made software/games for several systems including the aquarius. Except for some of the stuff developed in France I think it all got transferred to INTV in 1984 so it might belong to intellivision entertainment today. Aquarius software was all transferred to Radofin. Licensed games are subject to negotiation with the license holder, and even the ported Mattel games (like Utopia and Night Stalker) would be subject to licensing now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_me Posted December 4, 2019 Share Posted December 4, 2019 Thanks BSRSteve. So that software would belong to who ever inherited the Radofin/Fobel IP today. Would Intellivision Entertainment own the IBM PC, Apple II, atari 2600, and colecovision software? What about the software in the handheld electronic games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeOfPortal Posted December 4, 2019 Author Share Posted December 4, 2019 Alright, so I’ve done some more research. Fobel International PLC changes their name to something like S. Leboff Solar (more to the name after) and documents are available that state that they dissolved on June 26 2018 in the UK, and their assets apparently belong to the Crown Estate. That’s a dead end. Now, Fobel International only owned 51% of Radofin, so what happened to the other 49%? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeOfPortal Posted December 4, 2019 Author Share Posted December 4, 2019 Bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnieg Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 On 12/4/2019 at 2:17 PM, EdgeOfPortal said: Alright, so I’ve done some more research. Fobel International PLC changes their name to something like S. Leboff Solar (more to the name after) and documents are available that state that they dissolved on June 26 2018 in the UK, and their assets apparently belong to the Crown Estate. That’s a dead end. Now, Fobel International only owned 51% of Radofin, so what happened to the other 49%? I wonder if looking into addon electronics would help? They were jointly owned by radofin and datel from memory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeOfPortal Posted December 22, 2019 Author Share Posted December 22, 2019 18 minutes ago, barnieg said: I wonder if looking into addon electronics would help? They were jointly owned by radofin and datel from memory Yeah maybe. I might look into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Intymike Posted December 22, 2019 Share Posted December 22, 2019 Hm, has this by any chance something to do with the Add On company from the UK that released most of the tape games for the Aquarius? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeOfPortal Posted December 22, 2019 Author Share Posted December 22, 2019 28 minutes ago, Intymike said: Hm, has this by any chance something to do with the Add On company from the UK that released most of the tape games for the Aquarius? I believe that’s what he’s referring to, yes. I don’t think it’s clear who owns the rights for Aquarius so I’ve just been trying to look into it a bit more for historical research. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnieg Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Some previous research on add-on electronics, links to a world of spectrum page that's now a bit broken but does contain details of the issue of home computer weekly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barnieg Posted December 25, 2019 Share Posted December 25, 2019 Another radofin link, mentions a lichtenstein subsidiary http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/radofin_-_triton.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgeOfPortal Posted December 25, 2019 Author Share Posted December 25, 2019 (edited) 9 minutes ago, barnieg said: Another radofin link, mentions a lichtenstein subsidiary http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/radofin_-_triton.html That's quite interesting. Here's where I found my info about Fobel, etc. These came from various books on google and the UK Companies House. Edited December 25, 2019 by EdgeOfPortal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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