Page 12 - July August 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 6, 2008
NMRA Patent Challenge Update: Real Rail Effects fails to respond to NMRA DCC­sound patent challenge
The deadline for Real Rail Effects, Ltd (RRE) to respond to an NMRA patent challenge has passed, with no response from RRE.
RRE was granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) based upon a claim that the technology for using sound with DCC was invented by RRE. The NMRA, with the technical and financial support of a number of DCC manufacturers and hobbyists around the world, filed a challenge to the RRE patent.
The NMRA filed the challenge because we believe that the claims in the RRE patent application were not supported by the facts. The NMRA was aware that prior art and other evidence existed which negated RRE’s patent.
The NMRA felt that, should it remain in force, the RRE patent posed a threat to modelers and manufacturers of DCC equipment because it would both increase the costs to modelers and unfairly restrict manufacturers who provide decoders with sound. Therefore, the NMRA coordinated an industry­ and hobby­wide effort to have
the patent overturned. The NMRA submitted evidence from a number of sources raising substantial questions about the validity of the patent.
On February 11, 2008, the USPTO issued a ruling granting the NMRA’s patent re­examination request. The examiner stated in the ruling that there was a substantial likelihood that a reasonable examiner would consider the prior art important in determining the patentability of the application of RRE.
After the examiner at the USPTO determined that the position of the NMRA had merit and compelled a new analysis of the patent, RRE had two months to respond to the re­examination request. The deadline for a response has come and gone, and RRE made no reply. The NMRA is now very hopeful that a favorable decision will be announced and that the position of the NMRA and its supporters will be vindicated.
The NMRA considers this a clear triumph for the modeler and the model railroad industry. We are proud to have led the challenge team that has made this victory possible. www.NMRA.org
Ted Roberts sends the following old newspaper article from the NW Society.
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SALOON ON WHEELS WAS PROSPEROUS FOR A TIME
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Mountaineers Did Good Business on No. 12
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STOCK OF WHISKEY SOON EXHAUSTED
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Not a Few Passengers Handed Over Two-Bi’s [sic] for a Drink ------
PEDDLED BEVERAGE FROM COACH TO COACH
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A gentleman from this city who chanced to be a passenger on train No. 12, from Kenova, Monday, had the pleasure – or displeasure, as the case is one that can be variously judged – of witnessing a saloon on wheels in first class operation.
Hardly had the train rounded the curve at Ceredo for its journey up the Twelve Pole and along the Tug, until two men wearing the garbs of Kentucky mountaineers entered the smoking car, and each with a gallon jug and a cup in hand started through the aisle, announcing as they progressed that they had a very palatable beverage, namely, pure old corn whiskey, for sale. Many a passenger aboard had no doubt slept rather late that morning, and before going to the station for the journey had not the time to take a nip at home or in a saloon, so the new innovation was a rather pleasant as well as an odd one. Not a few of the passengers aboard handed over two bits [25¢ to you youngsters] to the Kentuckians for a jigger of the firewater, and when all those in the smoker had been served the festive mountaineers proceeded to the next coach, where not a few ladies chanced to be passengers. The ladies of course did not imbibe, but many of the men did, and had not the stock of liquor been exhausted, the vendors thereof would have had more money in their pockets when a revenue officer placed them under arrest as they stepped from the train at Williamson, and lodged them in jail there.
The men gave their names as David May and Walter Harris, and said their home was at Pikeville, Kentucky [c. 28 miles west of Williamson]. They had gone down the Tug and Big Sandy on Sunday on a fleet of timber and had taken the liquor from their homes with them with the intention of making expenses on their return. They made expenses, but not enough to pay them out of their present predicament. They were given a preliminary hearing before U. S. Commissioner Sampson, at Williamson, and were sent to jail to await the convening of the next federal grand jury in Huntington. Their arrest came about through a telegram sent by Conductor Elliott prior to the train's arrival at Williamson, and the revenue man was on the spot when the train pulled in. Bluefield Daily Telegraph
March 17, 1904
[It has restored my faith in womanhood to learn that “the ladies of course did not imbibe”.]
Gordon Hamilton
1 ROuNDHOusE