Ben Jacobsen, a model railroad hobbyist, wrote open-source software to allow one to connect a computer to their model railroad and control trains with it. KAM Industries, which makes commercial software to do the same thing, has been having their lawyers send him scare letters, including a bill for $203,000 for a license, and filing an FOIA request with his academic sponsor. Jacobsen believes the patent is invalid, and claims to have made his software publicly available before KAM filed for the patent in 2002. (Lenford blog; Jacobsen correspondence).
Model railroader sent $203k patent-infringement bill
Ben Jacobsen, a model railroad hobbyist, wrote open-source software to allow one to connect a computer to their model railroad and control trains with it. KAM Industries, which makes commercial software to do the same thing, has been having their lawyers send him scare letters, including a bill for $203,000 for a license, and filing […]
One Comment
Just wanted to mention: it’s actually “Bob Jacobsen,” not “Ben.”