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Just a reminder, these posts are not legal advice. This site is the personal blog of Mark Radcliffe and the opinions expressed are those of Mark Radcliffe and not those of his clients, DLA Piper or the clients of DLA Piper.

About Me:

Mark Radcliffe

I earned a B.S. in Chemistry magna cum laude from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. I have been practicing law in Silicon Valley for over 25 years and am now a senior partner at DLA Piper. DLA Piper is a new global law firm formed in 2005 from the merger of three law firms. The firm now has 3600 lawyers in 25 countries and 65 cities. My practice is a mix of corporate securities and intellectual property. I work with many startups as well as large global companies. I have had the opportunity to work with companies in many industries, ranging from semiconductor to digital media to open source. I am the General Counsel, pro bono, of the Open Source Initiative and I ran the "Users" committee reviewing the GPLv3 draft.

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

  1. Social comments and analytics for this post…

    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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