Other Commodore Brand Owners Dispute The Recent Company Rebirth
The Commodore brand was reborn via an announcement by Chris Simpson aka Peri Fractic, the man behind the Retro Recipes YouTube channel, on June 28. Then, he announced a brand new Commodore computer, the Ultimate 64, on July 12. Now, another company that owns a license to the Commodore name is disputing Simpson’s ownership.
Commodore Industries S.r.l. (also known as simply Commodore Inc.) is an Italian company owned by Massimo Canigiani and Paolo Besser, with Luigi Simonetti as CEO. Its official site includes a link to claimed copyright on the famous “chicken lips” logo and Commodore name in 2021, with this being granted in 2022. Simonetti recently posted a press release addressing the brand rebirth.
“In recent days, there has been a lot of talk, perhaps too much, about the “reborn” Commodore brand. Some statements, made public and, in our opinion, inappropriate, have only served to create total confusion within the community, fuel controversy and call into question the work of those who, for over seven years now, have been legitimately using the brand in compliance with both current laws and market rules,” he said.
“Such claims are not only legally unfounded, but also compromise the truth and unjustifiably discredit a business project that has invested time, resources and expertise in relaunching the Commodore brand in a modern and technologically advanced way.”
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Chicken Lips
Simonetti openly invites people to check up on his claim to the Commodore name, especially in terms of its use as Commodore Engineering, Commodore Sinapsy, Commodore Academy, and Commodore Digital. He also states that the logo is covered under his company name.
A search via the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) site does reveal Simonetti applied to trademark the logo and name in 2019, with the initial application granted in July 2020; however, this contradicts his claim of using the name for over seven years.
Plus, while the initial claim did incorporate the famous rainbow associated with Commodore (that Simpson has worked into the designs of the Ultimate 64), the most recent copyright claim by Simonetti only allows for the logo and name to be used in red and dark blue.
Same Name, Different Ethos
As for how Simonetti has been using the Commodore name, his ethos couldn’t be more different from Simpson’s “Honoring the past, innovating the future,” outlook.
“Commodore Industries S.r.l. has decided not to produce retro computers (even though this could have been a nostalgic moment that many would have appreciated) purely for commercial and marketing reasons, and not, as many may mistakenly think, to spite the community that has used and loved Commodore products since childhood, just like myself and the other co-founders of our company,” Simonetti said in the press release.
“Instead, the business has deliberately, and in our opinion rightly, focused on the development of innovative software and hardware, in line with the brand’s original vision.”
Whereas Simpson has revealed a modern C64, Simonetti’s company has instead opted to primarily produce modern laptops and tablets, earphones, a data cable, mini speaker, and a USB drive, all branded with the logo and name.
Despite Simonetti’s statement that his version of Commodore purposefully chose not to produce retro computers, it still revealed a C64 Pocket handheld in 2021, but there are no signs that this ever made it to market. It also started promoting the Commodore 64GK, a modern version of the C64, in 2022 but this also never made it to market.
Games, But Not For The Commodore
Where Commodore Inc. does line up more closely with the Commodore of old is in how it views games. It publishes (in Italian) a free Commodore magazine that focuses on games reviews (for the Commodore and Amiga), plus its Commodore Sinapsy branch develops new games. Not for the Commodore, although it does have a few for the Amiga.
The majority are PC and mobile titles, and are published under Commodore Industries – a name which Simionetti does not have a trademark for, but does refer to the company as on its official site. Simonetti also refers to Commodore Industries in a recent announcement from July 1, where he introduces Starcade, a game platform set to launch later this year. Commodore Inc. also now owns the rights to Xenon and The New Zealand Story, a classic shmup and platformer, respectively.
It’s All Just a Little Bit of History Repeating
This is not the first time the Italian version of Commodore has come under scrutiny for using the Commodore name. The company was previously linked with Commodore Business Machines Ltd (CBM) 10 years ago, when it launched a branded smartphone called the PET. However, most people who ordered one never received it, and it was found to be a cheap Chinese phone the company had rebranded and doubled the price of, plus it came with preinstalled emulators that were otherwise freely available.
At the time, Commodore Holdings, a Netherlands-based company linked with Tulip Computers (who recently sold the rights to Simpson) publicly disputed the rights of CBM to use anything related to Commodore, which CBM in turn denied.
It’s worth noting that Simonetti wasn’t publicly linked with CBM, but Massimo Canigiani and Paolo Besser were, and that Commodore Inc. features these latter two as silent partners. Plus, although Simonetti was promoting the 64GK it was also still linked with CBM, with the former company’s X (Twitter) account teasing it.
While CBM as a company had its license cancelled in 2016, it managed to register itself with the UK’s Companies House but was dissolved in 2024; this happens when there is either a legal dispute or the company is, basically, not active. It’s still active on social media and still using Commodore branding, however.
