RIM Suffers Another Court Setback
The United States Supreme Court Monday denied a request by BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion to review U.S. patent law. Specifically, RIM wanted the court to focus on issues regarding the enforcement of patents outside the country.
Such reviews are very uncommon for the court to take up, so RIM's chances of success were slim from the beginning. However, the company said it believed the issue was important enough for the company and the greater international community, so it decided to press the court for a review.
Monday's ruling would have no effect on the RIM-NTP battle currently being fought in a U.S. District Court in Virginia. RIM said the courts would schedule a hearing shortly on enforcement of an injunction that would prevent the company from operating its BlackBerry network within the United States.
RIM also cautioned that the decision to enforce the injunction was up to the courts, and it could provide no assurance to users that there would be a favorable outcome. Thus, it said it had been preparing software workarounds that would keep service running in the event the injunction is enforced.
One positive for RIM is the fact that all of NTP's patents have now been rejected in initial ruling. This was based on prior art claims not considered in the District Court trial in 2002.
"It is anticipated that the reexamination of NTP's patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office will continue with special dispatch," the company said in a statement.
As of press time, NTP had not made any public comment regarding Monday's developments.