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End of the Road for U.S. BlackBerry Users ?

_termx23 writes "US BlackBerry users may have to find an alternative source for their email addiction after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington rejected a request by Research in Motion to rehear its appeal of a patent infringement case brought by NTP, which holds a portfolio of wireless email-related patents violated by RIM." From the article: "As part of that litigation, NTP, whose only assets are wireless e-mail related patents, had been granted an injunction banning the sale of BlackBerry devices in the United States and forcing Research in Motion to stop providing e-mail services to all American customers except government account holders. While the court declined Research in Motion's request for a complete rehearing by all 12 of its judges, it did order the panel of three judges to review some aspects of NTP's patent claims." We've discussed this previously.

6 of 446 comments (clear)

  1. Darn! I was just about to get a promotion! by filesiteguy · · Score: 3, Funny
    I was about to move into a management position, which was going to allow me to carry a blackberry. (Only cool managers at my company get blackberrys.) Now I'll be stuck as a peon working for The Man until another cool gadget can come along which doesn't infringe on trademarks.

    Seriously, though, I think I'm in the wrong business. Instead of creating software and hardware, I should just come up with some really cool ideas and patent them. Eventually someone else will come up with the same idea and I can sue for $$$$.

    1. Re:Darn! I was just about to get a promotion! by CmdrGravy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ah yes but when lunch consists of 5 courses and serves to fill in the time before golf maybe it doesn't seem quite such a burden.

  2. I have an idea by SQLz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Email already exists....wireless networking already exists....lets put together email and wireless networking and patent it! Better idea. Breathing....on the internet? Can I patent that?

  3. Thank you, God by Ruprecht+the+Monkeyb · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they'll go out and re-possess all the damn things and I won't have to support them anymore. 90% of the people with Blackberries are clueless micro-managing morons who are so insecure they get panic attacks if they are out of contact for 10 minutes. Why is it the most unreliable and pain-in-the-ass technologies have to end up in the hands of those least equipped to use it and the most likely to blame others for their own incompetence.

    Sorry. Monday morning and already three helpdesk tickets on goddamn PDAs. Apparently, they need, like, batteries, or power, or something and won't work without it?

    1. Re:Thank you, God by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny
      Sorry. Monday morning and already three helpdesk tickets on goddamn PDAs. Apparently, they need, like, batteries, or power, or something and won't work without it?
      Dude, if you don't want to help people with their technical problems, it seems pretty likely that you're in the wrong line of work...

      Do you suppose there's a www.crossingguard.org where people post complaints like "Goddamn ignorant little kids, not being able to cross the road on their own"?
      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  4. Re:Alternatives by weez75 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I found Good to be much less expensive than Blackberry Enterprise Server overall.

    Also, Good has already licensed the IP from NTP so no worries at this point on that.

    --
    Of course we torture people, we need the information --Gen. Pinochet