Write Free Software, Pay $203,000 to Patent Holder
Ben Jacobsen, a model railroad hobbyist, wrote a bunch of software to let you connect your computer to your model railroad and control trains with it. He chose to not only give the software away for free, but to make the source code available as well, so that the model railroading/hacker community could improve it and customize it to their liking.
And then KAM Industries, maker of commercial software that serves a similar role, tried asserting their ‘patent rights’ over doing just that.
When the author of the open source railroad controller asked for additional information about what claims were being infringed, KAM sent him an invoice for $203,000, claiming that the 7000 or so users of his software resulted in damages of at least $29/each.
KAM then sent a request to the author’s academic sponsor (unrelated to his independent model railroad work), requesting copies of all his email and other correspondence. This was obviously a dirty tactic meant to rattle Jacobsen more than anything else.
Several more threatening letters arrived. Finally, in January of this year, Jacobsen pointed out that he didn’t believe their patent would withstand a challenge in court, noting that there was plenty of prior art, including his allegedly infringing software, which was available before KAM filed their patent application. He also pointed out that they must have known this all along. In February, KAM’s lawyers responded by claiming that they know of no invalidating prior art, and that they still viewed Jacobsen’s work as infringing on their patent rights.
This is all still ongoing. It isn’t clear that KAM will cease harassing Jacobsen, even with the knowledge that their patents are likely illegitimate.
But it is abundantly clear that patents like this hurt the efforts of those trying to make the world a better place by producing tools for others to use (for free in this case). It is equally as clear that even small companies can use their patents as bludgeons against individuals.
The continuing saga (as well as all correspondence to date) can be followed at Jacobsen’s website.
The gall of this company. If everything is how Bob is stating, and there is prior art. Then this is another case of the Patent Office messing up and Bob should be able to sue them for Libel.
Tags: Interesting, Legal, Software
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