Judge Hears Arguments in Blackberry Case

brooklynite

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Fri Feb-24-06 12:09 PM
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Judge Hears Arguments in Blackberry Case

Judge Hears NTP Arguments in Claim Against U.S. BlackBerry Service

By STEPHANIE STOUGHTON AP Business Writer

RICHMOND, Va. Feb 24, 2006 (AP)— Patent-holding company NTP Inc. on Friday asked a judge to award it $126 million in damages and issue an injunction against the maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail service for violating its patents.

The damages would be in addition to royalties NTP is seeking from Canadian company Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry.

NTP completed its presentation before U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer and was to be followed by attorneys for RIM.

It was not clear whether Spencer would rule Friday.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1657918

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Mithras61

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Fri Feb-24-06 12:17 PM
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1. How many of NTP's patents in this case...

are still standing? I know that at least one has been final invalidated (prior work exists) and that several others are preliminary invalidated, but I'm not sure where all the ones in THIS case stand right now. If all the patents that are supposedly infringed are invalidated, doesn't NTP's case sort of evaporate?

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Mithras61

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Fri Feb-24-06 02:22 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. Okay, I found it myself...

http://news.com.com/Second+final+rejection+issued+for+NTP+patent/2100-1047_3-6042989.html

Second final rejection issued for NTP patent
By Tom Krazit
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: February 24, 2006, 10:06 AM PST

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Friday issued a second final rejection of an NTP-held patent at the heart of the long-running BlackBerry dispute.

The final notice, which can be appealed to both the Patent Office and the federal courts, comes on the same day that Research In Motion and NTP are in a much-anticipated hearing arguing over whether an injunction will be imposed on the sale and support of BlackBerry devices in the U.S. Two days ago, NTP received its first final notice on one of the five patents at issue in the case. RIM announced Friday's Patent Office decision in a press release, and a Patent Office representative confirmed the decision.

Looks to me like RIM is going to keep operating and NTP is going to loose it's patents. I'm sure NTP will appeal in both the courts and to the Patent Office, but most of what I've seen indicates that NTP's patents are actually based on prior work, and their appeals will likely fail. I just wish RIM had taken the original suit a little more seriously, because this would already be over.

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brooklynite

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Fri Feb-24-06 04:07 PM
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3. Judge: No BlackBerry shutdown, yet (update)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A judge spared millions of users from an immediate shutdown of the BlackBerry portable e-mail devices on Friday.

Wrapping up nearly four hours of arguments in a district court in Richmond, Va., Judge James Spencer said he would not impose an immediate injunction against BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

But Judge Spencer said there was no escaping that RIM had been found to be infringing on NTP Inc.'s patents and he would issue a decision on an injunction "as soon as reasonably possible," according to Reuters.

"The simple truth, the reality of the jury verdict has not changed," Spencer said, adding that the parties should have settled out of court.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/24/technology/blackberry/index.htm?cnn=yes

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Mithras61

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Fri Feb-24-06 04:11 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. But the question remains...

if the NTP patents are invalid, how can RIM have infringed them? At this point in time, NTP's patents are rapidly being tossed on the trash heap by the USPTO, which would make the whole case go up in a puff of smoke (you can't infringe something that doesn't exist, after all).

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applegrove

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Fri Feb-24-06 04:31 PM
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5. Sometimes one has to wonder if it isn't more about making sure

Edited on Fri Feb-24-06 04:32 PM by applegrove

an American corporation gets the dominance in the "hand held" market instead of the a Canadian one.

Don't know really.

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