A company called ArrivalStar has been making a nice business of suing transit systems claiming rights over technology to display real-time arrivals.

In fact, ArrivalStar is the main reason that Portland Transport is organized as a 501(c)(3) – so that if our transit tools generated a legal challenge, we’d have a corporate wall to protect the developers (including yours truly).

But that era may be over. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has succeeded in limiting the scope of the patent, and the American Public Transit Association is suing to invalidate it.

A consummation devoutly to be wished.