RSSTwo More NTP Patents Deemed Invalid
By Ed Oswald | Published January 2, 2006, 12:26 PM
BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion celebrated another win in its fight against NTP, saying on Friday that the U.S. Patent Office had rejected two more of NTP's patents in "non-final actions." With these latest rejections, only one of eight patents surrounding BlackBerry technologies still stands.
With its court options exhausted, RIM has had to turn to the Patent Office for any hope of avoiding a disconnection of service. A U.S. judge in Virginia is currently considering a lifting of a stay that prevented the BlackBerry service from being shut down, and has indicated his patience with the case is wearing thin.
Since that time, the USPTO has moved swiftly to review NTP's patents, ruling completely in RIM's favor. "[It] is acting with special dispatch to address the court's concern and the public interest," RIM's marketing vice president Mark Guibert said.
With most of NTP's patents now deemed invalid, it looks less likely that either RIM would need to settle with NTP in the short term, or a shutdown would occur and leave millions of BlackBerry users without service. However, the patent holding company still has some options.
NTP can still appeal any final decisions from the USPTO through the courts, but a judgment in such cases could take years and be costly to the company.
NTP did not immediately comment on Friday's events.
I just hope the patent office stop handing out those board patents that cover everything you can think of. Some of these companies were created for the sole purpose to think of patents, and hope one day some company will creates a great product and they can sue for fees. They have no product or even employees.
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|I hope they throw out the last patent and NTP gets nothing. They had a chance to settle for 400 million and they turned that down. They are just a bunch of greedy jerks. I'm all for getting some money for an idea you came up with, but isn't 400 million reasonable, especially when they've invested nothing in actually making their patents into real tangible items.
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|I am a Blackberry Administrator. I feel that NTP is being very greedy. They should have just settled for the 450 million dollars that they were offered by RIM. The Patents that they submitted were registered in the mid 1990s. Technology has changed so much since then. There is one final patent for the USPTO to rule against an NTP. I am hopefull RIM will pull out of this lawsuit and file counter suit against NTP.
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|I thought the settlement was thrown out by the courts, and not rejected by NTP. I think the judge was not satisfied with the suite. Now that all but one of the patents have been declared invalid, I wonder how the judge will react?
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|I'm no fan of Crackberries but I hope they beat this money grab by NTP.
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|i can see that ur no fan of "Crackberrys" as you call them, heybirder.
anywho.... nor am i, but i still hope that their manufacturing company wins this patent thing....
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|LONG LIVE THE CRACKBERRY! :)
-SC
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