Judge invalidates BlackBerry patent settlement

This could create another national emergency scenario.

I remember in 1985, at Cal State Fullerton, my favorite LISP professor Dr. Falconer had an emergency, 40 minutes into our LISP class a military uniform showed up with a police officer to hand him a paper and he said the class was done and left with the uniforms. A week later he told us that there was a major programming problem with many of the nuclear missiles and became a national emergency enough to drag him all the way up to Livermore to fix it.

I wonder if the blackberry situation could create a similar situation.

Richard
 
RIM gets good news in patent case

http://www.news.com/

RIM gets good news in patent case

By Greg Sandoval
http://news.com.com/RIM+gets+good+news+in+patent+case/2100-1047_3-5979357.html

Story last modified Thu Dec 01 18:42:00 PST 2005


Battered by two recent setbacks in court, Research In Motion won a round in its long-running patent fight against NTP on Thursday when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected one of the claims by RIM's adversary.

Patent-holding firm NTP contends that it owns the patents for the technology that powers RIM's BlackBerry handheld devices, but the Patent Office recently received information that a Norwegian firm may have filed patents prior to NTP, according to various media sources. The ruling by the Patent Office is not final and NTP will have an opportunity to file a response.

The ruling came a day after a federal judge rejected Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM's request to approve a $450 million settlement with NTP. The judge also balked when RIM requested that the case be halted until the Patent Office had re-examined the validity of NTP's patents.

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At stake is RIM's right to operate in the United States. NTP has already won an injunction that would force RIM to pull the plug on its U.S.-based BlackBerry service. RIM has said that it could implement alternative methods to keep its service running, and experts expect that if RIM fails to triumph in court it would reach a settlement with NTP, albeit an expensive one.

RIM has asserted that the technology that enables BlackBerrys to forward e-mail automatically was not pilfered.

A final determination on the patents may not be reached for months.
 
Just read news, found out more interesting... Judge CAN shut down the blackberry wireless service in the united states! Is there chance? The news said its possiblity! I now understand whats going on. The problem is NTP who had patent in pending with wireless e mail system for RIM, and that RIM failed to pay royalities for NTP, also didn't get permission to use their patents, so RIM offered 450 million dollars in royality to settle the dispute and go on business as usual. But RIM continue to challenge that NTP patent is invalid. So here is the senerio, IF judge and Jury agreed that NTP patent is valid AFTER the patent office have complete the application process; NTP can sue RIM for as much as 1 billion, (maybe more) which RIM can NOT afford, and that judge CAN order ease of operation from RIM. Does not matter if US government demands the service to be continous because the court have always had the final saying.
So, it does NOT sound good for blackberry users. This is part of reason why I abandon blackberry!
 
NTP is apparently some kind of thing that was setup to earn money off of the patent. NTP is not the inventor of the technology.
 
diehardbiker65 said:
Just read news, found out more interesting... Judge CAN shut down the blackberry wireless service in the united states! Is there chance? The news said its possiblity! I now understand whats going on. The problem is NTP who had patent in pending with wireless e mail system for RIM, and that RIM failed to pay royalities for NTP, also didn't get permission to use their patents, so RIM offered 450 million dollars in royality to settle the dispute and go on business as usual. But RIM continue to challenge that NTP patent is invalid. So here is the senerio, IF judge and Jury agreed that NTP patent is valid AFTER the patent office have complete the application process; NTP can sue RIM for as much as 1 billion, (maybe more) which RIM can NOT afford, and that judge CAN order ease of operation from RIM. Does not matter if US government demands the service to be continous because the court have always had the final saying.
So, it does NOT sound good for blackberry users. This is part of reason why I abandon blackberry!
Click to expand...

Man, I'm sorry you abandoned Blackberry, because I can pretty much bet that they won't ever be cut off.

The courts do not have final say. There are layers upon layers of appeals that can still be made. And again, it doesn't matter what the courts say if the President or Congress make laws that prevent the court from enforcing their ruling. In this case, because the U.S. Government depends on those Blackberries, you damn well bet they won't say, "Oh, pooh, some judge said Blackberry has to turn off service, let's make the government come to a halt."

Blackberry can EASILY pay whatever settlement that NTP wants. NTP, however, doesn't want to just settle anymore. They KNOW their patent rights are probably going to be invalid. They want to get some kind of money rolling in by forcing Blackberry to license their technology. Blackberry WON'T.

There is no danger for Blackberry users. Absolutely none at all.
 
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