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Blackberry Future Uncertain
Dave White writes "Research In Motion and NTP have failed to reach a settlement in the Blackberry case. It looks like the door has been opened for NTP to be granted an injunction blocking the sales of Blackberry wireless messaging devices in the US. The New York Times (free registration yadda yadda) has the scoop on this interesting development."
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Listen fellow moderators, RTF posting before moderating "informative."
Mine lasts for days on a charge. My service provider charges $30 a month for unlimited data. How is that raped?
part of the problem is, RIM got the patent office to reexamine 8 of NTP's patents regarding the technology, and so far the PTO has come out with rejections on each proceeding they've done.
this adds a layer of complication to the infringement case, as no doubt some part of the deal rested on the outcome of those proceedings.
Last I checked Rogers [provider in my area] was around 60-70$/month and even then there were limits..
It depends I guess on where you are. I guess it was ok for people with unlimited business accounts, but for personal use it was useless.
As for battery life I guess I was mistaken [I seem to remember hearing stories about it but that was a while ago].
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
The company I work at recently yanked all blackberry devices and replaced them with Treo 600 and treo 650's.
the fact that you dont need any "special" software to access email and has the capability of viewing doc and excel attachments was the death spike for the blackberry here at this company.
and honestly, the treo's have much better sounding audio for phone calls than even the latest blackberry's did.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
instead of "yadda yadda" each time you link to NYT. Like this:& q=ntp+rim
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8
OTTAWA, June 9 - Final talks in a patent infringement lawsuit involving the popular BlackBerry e-mail messaging device have reached an impasse, the two companies involved said Thursday, raising the possibility that the BlackBerry service could be banned from the United States market.
The two companies, Research in Motion of Waterloo, Ontario, which makes the BlackBerry, and NTP, a small patent-holding company in Arlington, Va., reached a settlement in March to end an infringement suit that is three and a half years old. R.I.M. agreed at the time to pay NTP the unusually large sum of $450 million to end the suit.
On Thursday, however, it was apparent that negotiations to reach a final settlement had failed.
Late Wednesday night, R.I.M. asked a United States federal court to enforce the settlement reached in March. Meanwhile, in court papers filed Thursday, NTP denied that the settlement was ever clear-cut, and urged the court to reject R.I.M.'s request.
In a conference call Thursday with analysts, James L. Balsillie, the chairman and co-chief executive of R.I.M., said he could not comment on the specifics of why the talks had foundered, citing a confidentiality agreement between the companies. He emphasized, though, that R.I.M. had not tried to alter the settlement's terms, and blamed NTP for the impasse.
"This is an enormous amount of money, one of the largest settlements in the history of any patent system," Mr. Balsillie said. "I'm at a loss to understand what in the world one would want beyond that."
In its filing, however, NTP said that it had pressed R.I.M. for a complete set of documents detailing the terms of the agreement during three days of negotiations in March.
"Nevertheless, because of R.I.M.'s pressing need to leave town, the signed agreement was limited to a vague, ambiguously worded term sheet," the court papers said.
NTP had won the right to ban Blackberry e-mail in the United States in an earlier court decision, but that ruling was suspended when R.I.M. appealed. In its filing Thursday, though, NTP said that if no settlement was reached, it would again ask for an injunction on the sale of BlackBerry pagers and e-mail service in the United States. Research in Motion is dependent on Blackberry sales in the United States for about 75 percent of its revenues.
Gregory E. Upchurch, an intellectual property lawyer in St. Louis, said that about 80 percent of the time, courts enforced previously announced settlements. "Courts are in the business of resolving disputes," he said.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
According to this court document, the infrigments concern:
- Claims 15, 32, 34 of #5,436,960
- Claim 8 of #5,625,670
- Claim 199 of #5,819,172
- Claims 28, 248, 309, 313, 317 of #6,067,451
- Claims 40, 150, 278, 653, 654 of #6,317,592
These patents can be found here:5,436,960
5,625,670
5,819,172
6,067,451
6,317,592
These patents look to me like they would cover just about every PDA and cell phone on the planet today. Is RIM a target because of their popularity?
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
Over here in the UK, only one operator sells the Treo (Orange) and the others aren't remotely interested in them. As such, Blackberry's heavily outnumber Treo's.
Once I found I could manage my servers with PalmVNC on the Treo, that was it for me.
To be fair, I don't think that really is a killer reason for the majority of people.
Don't forget that Microsoft are also hot on the heels with their SP2 for Exchange 2003 (linky) so this isn't a good time for RIM.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
No time for a quick google to find the patent number? No time to do a search on the U.S govt. Patent office site? Here's the patent.
No time to follow the link? Here's the text of the abstract:
A system and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device upon sensing a triggering event is disclosed. A redirector program operating at the host system enables a user to continuously redirect certain user-selected data items from the host system to the user's mobile data communication device upon detecting that one or more user-defined triggering events has occurred. The redirector program operates in connection with event generating applications and repackaging systems at the host system to configure and detect a particular user-defined event, and then to repackage the user-selected data items in an electronic wrapper prior to pushing the data items to the mobile device. The mobile device and the host system share a common electronic address so that messages generated at either the host system or the mobile data communication device are configured using the common electronic address.
There *is* a BlackBerry port of the J2ME VNC client software. You'll have to think of another reason to justify the money you spent on the Treo 650. There are a couple reasons - like perhaps you prefer to have to retrieve mail rather than have it pushed to you immediately.
you manage your servers using vnc? that's a pity. i manage all of mine using pssh on my treo 650 :)
* An OS you can install things into
What kind of things can't you install on the BlackBerry OS? Just about any Java app I have run across has been able to be installed.
* Camera (not useful for everyone, I know)
* Movie camera (ditto)
Part of the reason some reporters like it is that it doesn't have a camera and therefore can be taken into courtrooms when they are not allowing cameraphones into the courtroom.
* Real web browser that does some Javascript and SSL
The BlackBerry browser supports some Javascript, SSL, and WTL.
* MP3 Player (you'd be surprised at the number of Wall Street types who don't have an iPod and use their phone instead)
I still havn't thought of a use for an MP3 player on a phone for me, so I'm going to leave this.
* Bluetooth (though the newer BBs have this too)
I will admit that this Bluetooth is just for voice, and if I recall correctly, the Treo is Data also.
* Hotsync with more than just Exchange!
UHHHHH....have you even seen the list of supported PIM applications for the BlackBerry? Just as extensive as any of the Palms...because it's made by the same company that makes the sync software for the Palm. Outlook, Outlook Express, Act!, Notes, GroupWise, ASCII (csv), Netscape, and Lotus Organizer.
Or are you speaking of servers? How about itegration with Exchange, GroupWise, and Domino? All three major platforms for business communication (not counting POP servers). And that's FULL integration with those, not just getting email from them. But if you just wanna do POP into the mailbox, that's supported by the web client...so is Outlook Web Access, iNotes, POP, IMAP, AOL, Hotmail, etc.
* Wireless hotsync!
This is also available, but granted, it does take a BlackBerry Enterprise Server running 4.0 software and the BlackBerry has to be on OS 4.0
* SD card slot
I'm glad it doesn't have an SD slot. It would be too easy to pull the SD card out of a BlackBerry and therefore steal all my information. Which brings up the point of security...and how the BlackBerry was built with secuity in mind.
* Software to open Office documents
Word doc's...check. Excell spreadsheets...check. jpg, gif, png, tiff...check. PDF's...check. HTML...check. TXT...check. What kind of office documents are you talking?
* More games than you can shake a stick at
There are lots of games for the BlackBerry, and probably any game for a cell phone can be installed over the air onto a BlackBerry...as long as it's a midlet game. But there are also a couple of game only developer sites for the BlackBerry. But then again, this is a business tool, not a gameboy.
* VNC, SSH, SMS, MMS, IM
SMS...check. MMS...check. IM...Check (and more being added). SSH...with the right software...check. VNC...Not sure, but I believe there is a VNC viewer available.
* VPN Clients! (Mergic, for instance)
Not really needed on the BlakcBerry...cause you are able to browse your intranet on the BlackBerry with just the regular BlackBerry browser.
Sometimes, it's good to do some research first.
The thing that the BlackBerry does, and does better than anyone...secure email integration. I'd like to see someone sniff one of my emails out of the air. Native 3DES encryption, and AES encryption coming available. Let's not forget the nice S/MIME encryption that is available for Enterprise users.
What else would you like me to educate you on about the BlackBerry?
And just so that no one thinks differently, I am not saying the BlackBerry is better than the Treo (aside from a secuity standpoint)...I think they both have their market. I just don't want anyone thinking that because this guy didn't do his research, they shouldn't either.
Zro . two
"I come from Canada...they say I'm slow....eh?"
FYI- From a 2003 story on www.brighthand.com:
The chief lawyer for NTP responded (to Congress's concerns) by saying that, if he and RIM's lawyers couldn't come to a settlement on licensing fees, he won't ask the court to shut down RIM's service until a replacement is ready.
For the record, the company was formed to defend the patents. Several posts seems to suggest that NTP is a company that patents vague ideas and waits for a successful company to pounce on.
From http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116441,0 0.asp/
Tom Campana developed a wireless communications system for his pager company that he later patented, and the BlackBerry infringes upon that patent, said James Wallace, an attorney with Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP in Washington, D.C., representing NTP. NTP was incorporated to hold Campana's patents, and does not make any products or provide any services, he said.
Oh, and BTW, in case you're thinking Tom is one greedy SOB, he's dead. http://news.com.com/Key+figure+in+BlackBerry+case+ dies/2100-1041_3-5238198.html/
Don't think I'm defending NTP. I just want everyone to get the facts straight.