Slashdot Mirror
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?
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.
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.
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."