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Blackberry Maker Facing Infringement Case In U.K.
xoip writes "As if the problems facing RIM in the U.S. are not enough, a second patent infringement case has been launched in the U.K. by Luxemburg based, Inpro Licensing SARL. A report published by The Globe & Mail says that the U.K. represents 10% of RIM's existing Blackberry subscriber base." More from the article: "At risk in the dispute is RIM's service to around 375,000 BlackBerry subscribers in Britain, about 10 per cent of its global total. If the Waterloo, Ont., company loses the case, it may be forced, along with licensees such as T-Mobile International AG, to stop selling or supporting the devices in Britain, according to lawyers representing the companies." Things don't look so good for their U.S. business either.
I got news earlier today that the U.S. trial is moving forward as well.
The article shows why I am so anti-government:
Under U.S. law, a company can be guilty of violating patents it didn't know about.
Try reading every law. Try finding a lawyer that knows every law. Now expand that to patents that even the Patent Office doesn't know exist.
But a judge denied RIM's request to enforce a $450 million settlement the companies announced in March but never finalized.
$450 million over basically a dream or a vision. Patents are ridiculous. How can anyone rightfully say that just announcing an idea without having at the minimum a justification for how to implement the idea is worth more than $0? Ideas don't have value. Words don't have value. Business plans don't have value. What has value is the ability to convert anything INTO a marketable resource.
The typical slashdot reply is "without patents no one would develop anything" and "without patents drug companies wouldn't be able to protect their investment." I don't believe this at all. Even with rampant P2P, there are 10 thousand musicians right now trying to write music. Even with strict non-compete clauses, there are thousands of programmers writing the next big thing on their home computers. People will always develop, invent, dream and write. The key to making money is not just having the idea, but coming up with a plan on selling that idea before someone can knock it off. Sure, patent and copyright might restrict another company for a few years from selling the item (in some countries), but the instant a drug or a device comes out to the market, you better believe there are black market copies sold a few days later in some countries with more lacking patents.
I am a firm believer in a very simple idea: if you have something of value, don't give it to others. Don't leave your gold on your porch in the open. Don't make your idea until you can find ways to capitalize on it.
inventor Thomas Campana began acquiring patents for wireless communications. Campana co-founded NTP to collect royalties on them. He died of cancer in 2004.
I can only hope that one we find that cell phones DO cause cancer and that this bastard got what he deserved from not having enough karma.
The company is asking a London court to invalidate a British patent held by Luxembourg-based Inpro Licensing Sarl... ...The patent is for a simple idea, which we say is either anticipated or obvious," RIM's lawyer, Antony Watson, told the High Court yesterday at the start of a five-day hearing.
1. Can a company asks for a patent invalidation so then it can go ahead and sell it's own implementation of it?
2. Aren't all patents for a 'obvious' ideas once one reads them?
Would one of the pro-patent people I see on these boards care to explain to me how this is a shining example of how patents foster innovation?
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
One company can patent something, sit on the patent and do nothing with it? How is that "innovation"?
The whole system all needs to go.
...... that people could be lining up to sue RIM as they perceive that RIM may be weak on the patent front? Basically, this lawsuit (and any that follow after it) are simply companies fishing for cash?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
I've been searching everywhere to actually find a copy of this patent. I was able to find some minor documentation of its existence but that was all in German and hard to sort through.
Has anyone found the text of this patent? Or atleast a more robust summary of it.
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
Although the directive was defeated, this hasn't changed the behaviour of EPO. The EU Commission is unable to control them.
I hope this doesnt prevent my roommate from getting a RIM job!!!
And yes, I live in Waterloo, and yes, he is going to work at RIM.
And finally, yes, I do abuse that joke daily.
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
Screw the government!
If the system has to shut down, throw the switch on EVERYONE, no exempting government users of any country. Let them lie in the bed of shit their asinine patent system has created, just like the rest of us.
At the very least there needs to be a law that says you can't have the patent without doing something with it. None of this bullshit sitting on a great idea so you can sue someone who actually turns it into a product or service.
And how much money has NTP lost by RIM implementing it?
... or at least remove the infringing product from the market that has the stupid patent law.
NOTHING.
Because they didn't have their own implementation to protect - the 'inventor's monopoly' that a patent gives the inventor.
Patents should be enforceable, even though a patent on sending text (even if it is formatted in a particular way) to a pager (a device designed to show text) is clearly a waste of time.
But an idea is worth nothing until it is implemented. Maybe the idea then gains some worth, but all the effort, research, etc is the real value. The product is the real value.
So NTP should be awarded damages equal or greater than the loss they've incurred from loss of business because RIM used their patent. $1 billion is ridiculous, if I was on the board of RIM I'd just say 'sod it, hard work doesn't pay, shut it down, make everyone redundant, where's our list of patents anyway'
The pundits won't agree, but I think that maybe RIM should just close up shop in protest. Clearly the way that patents are being used has gotten out of control, but nothing is going to be done to fix the problem until someone sufficiently powerful gets pissed off. Take away the Blackberry service for a week or two, and maybe the government big wigs and lobbyist will get the message that the predatory use of patents is a bad thing. It seems in this world that someone always has to die before anything gets done about obvious problems.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
If the courts rule that the 450 million dollar settlement is invalid, and that RIM has to stop selling blackberries, doesn't that mean that NTP will not get any money from them?
To me, this reads like NTP is going ot be losing out on 450 million dollars. Sure, RIM would be losing too, but my point is, how is this patent doing any good for NTP if they can't even legally license it to RIM?
Sure, they could maybe licens eit to some other company who will start useing it to make devices, but that would liekly never happen.
As such, if these are simply software patents, I think RIM has a much better chance of winning in the UK than they did in the US - so lets hope they put up a fight.
That being said, I completely agree with previous posters who have said that if Blackberry service is shut down for all subscribers for a few weeks that some long overdue revision of the patent system will have a greater chance of happening. After all, Blackberry users are more likely to be Movers & Shakers than the average population. Getting them all angry at once might not be a bad thing.
From what I've heard, 7 of the 8 NTP patents have already been overturned, and the final one is in jeopardy. Would RIM get all their money back (plus damages is too much to expect) if all the patents are ruled invalid? They should!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The injunction states that RIM must halt Blackberry sales and service to everyone in the US, excepting people who work for the US government. Now, I've seen estimates that 10% of the US Blackberry users are government employees. I'm sure people here on Slashdot would agree that it's not fair for RIM to take a huge revenue (and profit) hit to protest this ruling, thus:
RIM turns off all commercial service, except for gov't employees. The service fee for those employees increases 10x. Total revenue = same. Economic impact on gov't = large. Service impact on wealthy CEOs, who complain to gov't = total. Amount of time before injunction is repealed = ??
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams