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Jacobsen v. Katzer was a lawsuit between Robert Jacobsen (plaintiff) and Matthew Katzer (defendant), filed March 13, 2006 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The case addressed claims on copyright, patent invalidity, cybersquatting, and Digital Millennium Copyright Act issues arising from Jacobsen under an open source license developing control software for model trains. In ruling on summary judgment motions the Northern District Judge ruled that liability for an open source copyright violation nevertheless did not support Plaintiff's claim for damages. The Ruling rendered Plaintiff's claim pointless since the Plaintiff could not recover money damages. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the trial judge holding an open source copyright claim was enforceable and awarded damages. The case then settled on February 16, 2010. The case is noted for its contentiousness, with over 400 docket items (including motions, pleadings, as well as court orders) entered at the trial court, and two appeals to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The Jacobsen case is noteworthy in United States copyright law because Courts clarified the enforceability of licensing agreements on both open-source software and proprietary software. The case established the rule of law that terms and conditions of the Artistic License 1.0 are "enforceable copyright conditions". Background Jacobsen, a model railroad hobbyist and a programmer, started the Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) Project along with other software developers in 2000, on the open-source incubation website SourceForge.net. The goal of the project was to create interfaces that would allow model trains to be controlled on a layout of model train tracks. The software created by the JMRI community was distributed without charge on the Internet, subject to the terms of the Artistic License. JMRI also sells custom software directly to modelers and to dealers for resale. JMRI's sales have qualified JMRI for membership as a business in the Model Railroad Industry Association (MRIA). Defendant Katzer is the owner of KAMIND Associates Inc., an Oregon company doing business under the name KAM Industries. KAM produced and sold beginning in 1997 a commercial product for model trains, Train Tools, based on client-server software. Katzer owns several patents that may apply to the model railroad industry, one of which he alleged the JMRI project may infringe. Jacobsen, however, alleged that Katzer's software utilizes textual files from the JMRI project, in violation of copyright and the DMCA. Katzer subsequently countersued Jacobsen for $6 million for copyright infringement. In addition to the patent claims, there was also a dispute over websites. In February 2004, Katzer registered the web domain decoderpro.com; however, DecoderPro is the trademarked name for a JMRI program. Jacobsen succeeded in obtaining the return of the domain name. Litigation history Initial actions Both Jacobsen and Katzer moved for summary judgment and the district court ruled on the parties' Motions in December 2009. Summary judgment The summary judgment deals with a series of submissions presented by Jacobsen (plaintiff) and Katzer (defendant). Responses to initial submissions were filed on November 13. Both plaintiff and defendant further replied to responses on November 19 and 20. Prior to oral arguments on December 4, Judge Jeffrey S. White issued a Notice of Tentative Ruling and Questions, tentatively affirming in part and denying in part Jacobsen's motion for summary judgment and tentatively denying Katzer's motion for summary judgment. On December 10, 2009, the judge denied Katzer's motion, concluding that Jacobsen could copyright the selection and ordering of the decoder definition files and could show monetary damages for copyright infringement. In the same ruling, he granted in part and denied in part Jacobsen's motion, finding that Katzer did register the decoderpro.com domain name in bad faith, that Katzer is liable for copyright infringement of the decoder definition files and that Katzer's counterclaim for copyright infringement is barred by the doctrine of laches (damaged argument), and ruled that Jacobsen had a license under an "Implied License" doctrine. The judge did not rule on damages for copyright infringement and determined that the questions of Katzer's knowledge or intent in removing copyright notices are triable issues. Settlement The parties reached settlement on February 16, 2010, and the settlement paid on March 5, 2010. The basic terms of the Mutual Settlement Agreement included the Parties agreeing: To a permanent injunction enjoining Katzer from "reproducing, by download or others, JMRI material, modifying JMRI material or distributing JMRI material". The Settlement forever barred each from pursuit of claims, known or unknown existing up to the settlement date, against the other. The Agreement pertained to "all claims based on or related to JMRI Material". This settlement term applied to JMRI, JMRI end-users, and JMRI developers to the date of settlement payment. To dismiss all pending matters, including Federal Circuit appeal, Jacobsen v Katzer et al., No. 2009-1221. Katzer/KAM agreed on a payment of $100,000 to Jacobsen. The settlement agreement terminated all Oral and Implied licenses between parties. Not to initiate legal proceedings against each other for 10 years, and to refer future disputes to arbitration. This applied only to Jacobsen and Katzer/KAM, not to JMRI, JMRI end users, or JMRI developers. That the Settlement Agreement does not pertain to newly issued Katzer IP, or any later JMRI software versions, appearing after the settlement date. As required by the Settlement Agreement, the defendant paid the plaintiff $100,000 on March 5, 2010. Specific issues Copyright claims KAM received a copyright infringement notification from Jacobsen on September 11, 2006, and on the same day Jacobsen filed an amended complaint that included a claim for copyright infringement. On the same day KAM removed allegedly infringing materials from KAM's website. In Jacobsen's declaration, in support of a motion for a preliminary injunction, he specifically identified examples of alleged copyright infringement. In August 2007, the district court denied Jacobsen's request for declaratory judgment, holding that the "defendants' alleged violation of the conditions of the license may have constituted a breach of the nonexclusive license, but does not create liability for copyright infringement." The judge stated that JMRI failed to allege claims that were the proximate cause of a breach of the Artistic License. In August 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated the district court's ruling, holding that the terms of the Artistic License are enforceable copyright conditions, and sent the case back to the district court. The appeals court said, "Open source l.... Discover the Matthew Katzer popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Matthew Katzer books.