Settlement Reached in BlackBerry Dispute

AP ^ | 3.3.2006 | Peter Svensson

[July 4th]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device, Friday announced it has settled its long-running patent dispute with a small Virginia-based firm, averting a possible court-ordered shutdown of the BlackBerry system. RIM has paid NTP $612.5 million in a "full and final settlement of all claims," the companies said.

The settlement ends a period of anxiety for BlackBerry users. At a hearing last week, NTP had asked a federal court in Richmond, Va., for an injunction blocking the continued use of key technologies underpinning BlackBerry's wireless e-mail service.

RIM, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, had put away $450 million in escrow for a settlement. It will record the additional $162.5 million in its fourth-quarter results, it said.

[null and void]

Section 8

"Congress shall have the Power To:"

Paragraph 8

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

A concept that was unique to the Constitution in all of previously recorded history.

The idea originated with Benjamin Franklin. In terms of affecting our society, it probably had more impact than anything else that fine gentleman ever did.

FR recently had a thread about it.

[FreePaul]

Some patents are obtained in order to close out competition. Not using a patent doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't something on the market that will do the job. If someone has a patent that they don't intend to use, make no similar products, and aren't attempting to license it to others then the damages for infringement should be "reasonable." I'm curious how NTP conjured up the amount of damages in this case.

[null and void]

Here: Ben Franklin’s Greatest Invention

[null and void]

No... going to court to get a payoff from somebody else's ideas, holding hostage millions of customers... that's extortion.

Who said anything about MicroSoft? Stay on topic!

;^P

[Ramius]

The light goes on... that makes sense.

What RIM needed most right now was some certainty. They were starting to suffer in the marketplace merely because of the uncertainty about their service continuity.

Even if all of NTP's applications are ultimately thrown out (which appears to be on the way) RIM was better off to just settle *now*, to stop the hemorraging.

They could conceivably go back to court later with an action against NTP if the bottom falls out from under their patent apps. I wonder if that's possible. In a just world NTP should pay a price if their harrassment was all just a nuisance suit from the beginning.

[dhs12345]

Sounds like RAMBUS and the DDR lawsuits of a few years ago.

[dhs12345]

Agreed. They create nothing and stifle innovation.

[Ramius]

Heh.

Well, I'm not so much of a MS hater, at least not today. :-)

[AZRepublican]

Madison and Jefferson noted the distinction between "discovery" and "ideas." You note that all the early patents were actual discoveries that were demostrated by its inventer before a patent was issued. It is not fair that someone to patent the idea of going to the moon and then suing NASA for actually spending the money to figure out how and actually doing it.

[Larry Lucido]

RIM has paid NTP $612.5 million in a "full and final settlement of all claims,"

RIM . . . will record the additional $162.5 million in its fourth-quarter results, it said.

I hope they get that minor juxtoposition of digits resolved before anyone signs anything.

[null and void]

Patent law requires that a patent 'teach' anyone 'skilled in the art' how to do it.

[null and void]

612.5-450=162.5

[Larry Lucido]

%@&#* math majors.

(Thanks).

[null and void]

Engineer, actually...

[AZRepublican]

>Patent law requires that a patent 'teach' anyone 'skilled in the art' how to do it.

Is that actually something Congress pulled from thin air or a Supreme Court imposed rule?

[null and void]

Darned if I know.

The PTO test for patentability is the ideas has to be novel, useful, and 'inobvious'.

When I got mine, I was also told that case law required that to be valid the patent had to disclose all of the invention.

That would be a good question for an IP attorney. I expect one will show up on this thread.

[SuziQ]

There must be something solid, if it's worth RIM paying 600M to settle it.

Not necessarily, RIM may just consider it a cost of doing business to get these folks off their backs forever.

[FreePaul]

...'teach' anyone 'skilled in the art'...

Always fun to try to politely tell a judge that everyone in the courtroom but him sees how to do it.

[SuziQ]

You mean having to go to court to get paid for your ideas is extortion?

From what I've read, the ideas were NOT NTP's. They'd bought the patent applications from someone else and filed them on their own behalf. It was looking like the applications were going to be denied, anyway.

[null and void]

Are you trying to show your contempt of Court???

No, your Honor, to conceal it...