Blackberry In Court Again Over Patents

uqbar writes "Looks like Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian makers of the portable Blackberry email device, are back in court again. If patent holding company NTP wins their case, then RIM would be barred from selling Blackberry pagers in the US and would owe $54 million. Is this yet another case of overreaching patents gone amok?" We previously covered the original ruling in this case in August 2003.

Comments

overreaching?

[Mz6]

"Is this yet another case of overreaching patents gone amok?"

Nah, it's not like Microsoft has patented double-clicking or something... oh wait...

Re:overreaching?

[Kyouryuu]

It's purely conflict of interest. The U.S. Patent Office makes money with each patent it grants. Even the application fee alone is substantial. Therefore, there is no economic incentive for the Patent Office to deny patents, no matter how dubious they are. That's why they seem to pass through the system like diarrhea.

The irony is that now both parties and the judicial branch of the government will likely spend more money just sorting out the dilemma created by the greedy Patent Office's apathy. Not that the Patent Office cares. They already have their cash.

Re:overreaching?

[Mz6]

Wait a minute...

I have never filed for a patent before, so I am unsure of the exact process. However, I thought that fees associated with filing a patent were non-refunadable. Meaning that the USPTO will get their money whether or not the application is approved. Am I correct in this?

Re:overreaching?

[CharlieHedlin]

Ah, but if they have a reputation for granting, people will file more junk patents.

If they start rejectiong patents it would not take long for people to wise up and only file legitimate (define that how you would like) patents. Their income would fall rapidly.

Its amazing. Government is just like every company, species, etc. It grows as fast as it can given the enviroment. We need Libertarian pricipals so that we can check this, cutting fat inefficient agencies. This is just as predators check the rabit population.

Re:overreaching?

[angle_slam]

Partially correct. There is a filing fee that is non-refundable, even if the application is rejected. However, there is also something called an Issue Fee, which is only charged once a patent is granted. In addition, there are Maintenance Fees, which are charged at 3.5, 7.5, and 11.5 years, in order to keep the patent from expiring.

Here is the full fee schedule. Fees of note: filing fee is $770. Issue fee is $1,330. Maintenance fees are $990, $2,090, and $3,220. There are also fees for publication ($300), filing an assignment ($40), for filing excess claims (more than 20), filing late responses to the patent office, and many more. In general, "small entities" pay half of the amount listed above, though there are exceptions.

Exiting models?

[MalaclypseTheYounger]

If BlackBerry loses this case, does that mean I can give back my BlackBerry that my job makes me carry around with me 24/7?

FreeEEEDOM!!!

Or better yet, maybe my Blackberry will have to meet a certain 'accidental' demise, and they will be unable to give me a new one due to this patent hearing.

Re:Exiting models?

[afidel]

The blackberry is basically a limited PDA environment with build in cellular data service (and voice too on a couple of the really expensive models). How they ever got to be so popular I have no clue. We used them at IBM for dispatching calls to us field techs but the coverage was really poor and any PDA with a cellular addon would have been tons more usefull (like say for accessing map sites since we were driving to new locations every day). My only guess is that RIM/Cingular is able to make private networks for large customers that make them feel more secure then a general IP solution would.

It's a new business model...

[acariquara]

...suing your enemies into oblivion.

Wait, I think Microsoft got that patented, scratch that.

Re:It's a new business model...

[s4m7]

Wait, I think Microsoft got that patented, scratch that.

Microsoft may have the patent, but I thought they sold an exclusive license to SCO for this new "sue them into oblivion" technology.

In other news, MS has announced a fatal flaw in their "sue them into oblivion" technology, and will be releasing a service pack sometime in the next 90 days. seems in the current version you actuallly have to have a case.

Prior Art

[PktLoss]

It seems like the court case should have waited pending an end to the resolution of the US Patent Offices' re-examination of the patents in question. The whole thing becomes a non-issue if the patents are thrown out.

Freedom...

[hitech69]

Didn't someone once say that "freedom is just another word for having nothing else to lose". Hmmm... don't think America is very free anymore, and the patent system is not only wasting the industries time, it's wasting the justice system's time dealing with all these bogus court cases. What really scares me if one of these looney judges rules in favor of upholding these vague patent claims.

Should be a time limitation!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this kind of delayed lawsuits even permitted? If someone is infringing on your patent(s) it should be your right and DUTY to enforce your patent immediately. These guys instead wait, let the infringer spend money and make money, and THEN they sue for larger amounts than would otherwise have been sensible.

Are we to believe they hadn't heard of the Blackberry until recently? Ludicrous!

What goes around comes around

[augustz]

RIM has sued tons of companies on patent infrigment (they patented every little thing they could). For example.

Research In Motion, makers of the RIM Blackberry smart pager, has filed suit against Handspring alleging that Handspring's Treo communicators violate one of their patents. Specifically, RIM claims to have a patent on the curved keyboard layout used by three of the four Treo devices (the Treo 180g uses Graffiti character recognition instead) as well as on the rounded buttons. No information is available regarding what damages RIM is seeking.

So I have a bit less sympathy for them. What goes around comes around.

Just a thought.

[Saggi]

If this goes on for much longer the US will become a low-tech country. It will not be possible to invent or put new technology out on the market there, just because of the risk of getting to court. The market will move elsewhere and only old and tested devices (that have certain "prior art") will remain in the US.

Luckily I live in Europe...

But will the European Union adopt the same madness as the US? If this becomes the case we will see new technology evolve in Asia... (did anyone mention China?)

Just a thought.