NTP Sues Palm for Patent Infringement
Eight months after winning a $612.5 million settlement from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion for alleged infringement of heavily-contested patents, NTP has sued Palm over similar claims. NTP says Palm's products, services and processes infringe on its patents.
At issue is likely Palm's popular Treo smartphone, which, like the BlackBerry, offers mobile e-mail and connectivity functionality. NTP says it only filed suit after licensing talks fell apart, and in turn, the company is seek cash compensation from Palm.
NTP, a patent holding firm, said in the lawsuit filed Monday in Virginia that it first contacted 3Com -- once Palm's parent company -- in January 2000. It says it followed up with Palm in July 2004 and April 2006. In the meantime, NTP had kept busy with litigation against RIM.
NTP sued RIM in 2001, shining a light on the broken patent system in the United States and threatening to shutdown the BlackBerry service. RIM offered to pay NTP $450 million, but the company wanted more money, including a percentage of all RIM revenues.
In a review, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary ruling that NTP's patents were not valid, but a final decision could take years. And because they are still valid patents, the courts had no choice in granting an injunction requested by NTP for RIM to stop offering infringing products.
Facing a potential shutdown of its service, RIM agreed in March of this year to pay NTP its asking price of over $612 million in exchange for licenses to its patents. This freed up NTP to go after other alleged offenders, such as Palm.
NTP co-founder Daniel Stout said in a statement that the company "would still prefer to resolve this issue with Palm in a negotiated license agreement that is fair and reasonable to both parties." NTP did not specify what it considered reasonable.
Palm has yet to comment on the matter, although the marketplace is already speaking loud and clear: Palm stock was down close to 9 percent after the lawsuit was announced.