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Judge To Issue Blackberry-NTP
Ruling Next Week
By Kevin McLaughlin, CRN
2:02 PM EST Fri. Feb. 24, 2006
The judge in the court battle between RIM and NTP
postponed until next week a ruling on whether to issue an injunction
against the Blackberry mobile e-mail
service that would affect RIM's 3.2 million U.S. customers.
However, U.S. District Judge James Spencer did acknowledge that Waterloo,
Ontario-based RIM did violate NTP's patents, and said he would make a
decision on a possible injunction "as soon as reasonably possible,"
according to Reuters.
Yesterday, RIM CEO James Balsillie said that his company is prepared to
pay NTP 5.7 percent of the proceeds from future Blackberry sales in the
U.S., on the condition that NTP give RIM agreeable licensing terms. RIM
had a standing offer to give NTP a 0.5 percent share of future Blackberry
sales for the next seven years, when NTP's patents run out.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that one of
the five patents held by NTP is invalid, a decision that some legal
analysts believe could eventually lead to the rejection of the other four
patents. Friday, the USPTO ruled another of NTP's patents invalid.
David Bean, president and CEO of eAccess
Solutions, Palatine, Ill., says an injunction would be unfair given
that two of the five patents held by NTP have now been ruled invalid by
the USPTO. "We're confident that either with further court action, or a
settlement process, that RIM and the BlackBerry product will not be in
danger of termination," said Bean.
Steve Beauregard, president of Regard Solutions, Santa Monica, Calif.,
isn't surprised that the judge denied NTP's request for an injunction, but
says a bigger issue looms.
"The important lesson here is to recognize that wireless enterprise
solutions are now mission critical," said Beauregard. He says in light of
the other legal battles brewing in the wireless e-mail space, companies
will have to learn to plan strategically to avoid legal pitfalls.
