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About Me:

Mark Radcliffe

I have been practicing law in Silicon Valley for over thirty years assisting startups and global companies develop and market innovative products and services. I have participated in multiple business cyles in Silicon Valley from hardware to software to internet to cloud. My projects have included developing the dual licensing business model for open source startup, developing the original domain dispute resolution policy for NSI and assisting Sun in open sourcing the Solaris operating system. Recently, I served on the US Japan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council (one of ten members) to develop a plan to encourage the innovation in Japan and the United States. I have been working with the same attorneys since 1986 although we have merged with other law firms several times. I am now a partner at DLA Piper, a (relatively) new global law firm formed in 2005 from the merger of three law firms. The firm now has 4200 lawyers in 31 countries and 77 cities. My experience in corporate securities (particularly venture capital) and intellectual property enables me to assist companies structure the financing and intellectual property strategy for developing ane exploiting a new product or service. I and my team work with fifty startups at one time as well as Global Fortune 100. I have been fortunate enough to work with companies in software, cloud computing, semiconductor, health care IT and Web 2.0.

Jacobsen and FOSS Community Win Big in Jacobsen v. Katzer Settlement

19/02/10

As expected, the Jacobsen case has now settled.  The settlement was a complete victory for Jacobsen and is great news for the FOSS community.  The Jacobsen case was very significant for the FOSS community because it was the first case in the US about the enforcement of open source software licenses. http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.com/blog/?p=141. This settlement is important because after a significant victory in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) which set a very favorable standard for licensors to get “injunctive relief”, the District Court failed to issue an injunction. This failure to grant an injunction was on appeal, but the result was uncertain because the CAFC imposes a high burden on parties challenging such decisions by district courts (the appeal has dismissed as part of the settlement).

The settlement is a vindication for Jacobsen. The settlement has three important elements (the Settlement Agreement can be found at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25847971/Jacobsen-Settlement):

1.  Payment of $100,000 to Jacobsen over an eighteen month period.

2.  A very broad injunction prohibiting Katzer from reproducing, modifying or distributing “JMRI Materials” as well as prohibiting Katzer from registering certain trademarks and domain names.   JMRI Materials is very broadly defined to include all types of copyrightable materials relating to the original model railroad software, from software code itself to text to arrangements of data. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/25851030/Jacobsen-Permanent-Injunction

3.  A special procedure to resolve disputes about compliance with the settlement agreement through a private procedure using mediation and arbitration.

The lawsuit is dismissed with prejudice (i.e. the case cannot be refiled by either party). This case is an excellent resolution for the FOSS community and the lawyers for Jacobsen should be congratulated for their hard work and success.

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3 Comments

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    This post was mentioned on Identica by caostheory: Mark Radcliffe discusses the Jacobsen vs Katzer settlement and its importance for the FOSS community. http://bit.ly/azhrHb...

    Trackback by uberVU - social comments — February 19, 2010 @ 5:36 am

  2. [...] Jacobsen and FOSS Community Win Big in Jacobsen v. Katzer Settlement The lawsuit is dismissed with prejudice (i.e. the case cannot be refiled by either party). This case is an excellent resolution for the FOSS community and the lawyers for Jacobsen should be congratulated for their hard work and success. [...]

    Pingback by Links 20/2/2010: Ubuntu 10.04 Gets New Appearance, Jacobsen vs Katzer Victory | Boycott Novell — February 20, 2010 @ 6:15 pm

  3. [...] Jacobsen and FOSS Community Win Big in Jacobsen v. Katzer Settlement The lawsuit is dismissed with prejudice (i.e. the case cannot be refiled by either party). This case is an excellent resolution for the FOSS community and the lawyers for Jacobsen should be congratulated for their hard work and success. [...]

    Pingback by Links 20/2/2010: Ubuntu 10.04 Gets New Appearance, Jacobsen vs Katzer Victory | Boycott Novell — February 20, 2010 @ 6:15 pm

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