Probably everybody already heard the story for the Arduino vs Arduino which was featured in two Hackaday articles here and here and later the Massimo Banzi statement in Makezine.
This is not first project started by ‘friends’ without paying too much attention to law details when partnership is formed and ending at court when the money come.
The most interesting for me was the link to the court documents in the comments under Makezine article. US law system rocks and seems all documents are available in public online.
Reading the complaint you can actually see how Arduino project has started and developed during the years, which at least for me was very interesting.
IMO Smart projects now are out of business and do not differ in any way to the countless Chinese clone manufacturers.
It’s funny that he didn’t pay any money to rest Arduino team last year, so all people who actually bought ‘original made in Italy’ Arduino didn’t support the project at all but put their money in Gianluca’s pockets!
olimex 
Mar 20, 2015 @ 13:11:18
Well, you know what they say … if it is stolen, it won’t last.
Arduino existence can’t be justified otherwise. They said it had to be done, for the fear that it will be lost once the school was closed.
But the simple fact that the Wiring project exist outside Italy (see http://wiring.org.co/), infirms that. What else remain? Well, only shame. Or it should.
Mar 20, 2015 @ 13:58:08
you better read the facts exposed in the court, so you can learn the truth and stop spreading rumours 🙂
“34. Banzi is the creator of the Programma 2003 development platform a precursor of the many Arduino branded products. Banzi was also the Master’s Thesis advisor of Hernando Barragan whose work will result in the Wiring development platform which inspired Arduino”
so it’s Banzi who is behind the Wiring which transformed later in Arduino
Mar 20, 2015 @ 14:28:00
Sorry man, Baragan is behind the Wiring project… Programma 2003 is a parallel project of Banzi and nothing else. I know what Jal means, as I am a Jal user. It was dropped for the Baragan’s better project. Banzi was a member (still is but not active) of Jallist user group. Banzi being an advisor means nothing.
Anything I said is ok. Teachers took the sudent’s work and changed the name and designed their own board. And those are also facts. Where are the rumors?
We, Jal users, knew long before about Programma 2003, read here:
https://sites.google.com/site/funlw65/file-archive/arduino-chi2007-mellis-banzi-cuartielles-igoe.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 (search for the Programma 2003 phrase)
Nov 07, 2016 @ 17:41:33
Hernando is the guy behind what evoluted as Arduino. http://arduinohistory.github.io/
Mar 20, 2015 @ 22:28:33
Where I can send you an email? You know mine.
Mar 24, 2015 @ 20:42:16
A comment about the citation “This is not first project started by ‘friends’
without paying too much attention to law details” .
There are many similarities between the case of:
– Massimo Banzi vs. Gianluca Martino (for Arduino)
– Adrian Bowyer vs. Bre Pettis (for RepRap).
In both cases you have a highly unstable association of:
– a founder from academic or educational institutions,
earning money from public subsidiaries and/or consulting.
– a businessman interested in commercial products and incomes from capital.
Soon or later, it inevitably explodes because they have incompatible goals:
– Fame, awards, academic distinctions for the first.
– Capital, stock options, etc. for the second.
In an alternate reality, if … then …
– If Banzi was well paid as a creative shareholder associated to Martino’s company.
– And if Chinese clones were not so easy to produce.
– Then it would be stable and there would be no lawsuit, like for:
— Steve Wozniak (intellectual) vs. Steve Jobs (money).
— Paul Allen (intellectual) vs. Bill Gates (money).
Apr 03, 2015 @ 14:58:35
“Today’s battle Arduino™ vs. Arduino® is missing a major point. Who were the real pioneers who made it all possible?”
http://embeddedcomputing.weebly.com/blog/paying-tribute-to-the-real-pioneers-processing-and-wiring
Apr 03, 2015 @ 15:04:13
BTW, the thesis can be downloaded from here http://wiki.wiring.co/images/7/76/Wiring_thesis.pdf
Apr 03, 2015 @ 15:40:52
You know, all producers who make a living from open source / open hardware should let Arduino aside and approach Hernando. They won’t loose a thing. The language is there and it will evolve per his creator specifications – yes, there will be an evolution. The Wiring IDE has already many improvements comparing to the other one. And there is a good activity (see the twitter page). And the producers won’t have the dilemma of which Arduino to follow in the future. And this is how we can repair an injustice who lasted too long.
Mar 23, 2016 @ 05:31:26
Hernando is the man
Feb 16, 2018 @ 03:40:04
And finally some justice is done and Hernando gets the credit and recognition he deserves.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/05/19/988294/0/en/Arduino-Welcomes-Hernando-Barrag%C3%A1n-as-Arduino-Chief-Design-Architect.html