Free Software and Model Railroading Patents Update

Pamela Jones of Groklaw has written a detailed summary of the continuing patent dispute between KAM Industries and Bob Jacobsen's open source JMRI software for controlling model railroads.

If you aren't familiar with the case, Bob Jacobsen is a model railroading hobbyist who wrote the JMRI software in his spare time and then gave it away for free. KAM Industries then sent him an invoice for over $200,000, claiming that he infringed their patents and that he owed them royalties.