
The latest development in this story, however, may give some hope to public transit systems everywhere: The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), along with the Public Patent Foundation (PubPat) decided they weren't going to take it anymore, and fought back. They filed a lawsuit that challenged ArrivalStar's repeated frivolous charges, and sought to nullify some of their patents altogether, considering that the company apparently hasn't researched, developed, or produced anything related to those patents anyway. A pivotal argument in their case invoked the 11th Amendment Immunity, which "prohibits APTA's state and regional public transportation agency members from even being subject to such suits."
Clearly not used to meeting such resistance, this time ArrivalStar felt compelled to settle, agreeing "not to make any future patent infringement claims against any of APTA’s public transportation agency members or any vendors providing goods and services to APTA public transportation agency members." While this is certainly a win for APTA and its members around the country, the settlement might also constitute another small victory for ArrivalStar, who narrowly avoided actually having to go to court to defend and demonstrate the validity of their patents.