Slashdot Mirror
Hopes Rise for RIM
sbowles writes "U.S. District Court has set Feb 24th as the next date for a hearing to consider a possible injunction against Research in Motion. Despite this, RIM shares are rising on news that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), under pressure from crackberry-addicted Congressmen, may be moving to invalidate NTP's patents. As a contingency, RIM has announced that they have a software workaround that will allow service to continue uninterrupted."
news that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), under pressure from crackberry-addicted Congressmen, may be moving to invalidate NTP's patents.
While I agree that NTP's case is bogus, unhappy Congressmen are the wrong reason for invalidating the patents in question: it hoists them above the rules everyone else has to live under.
I think most would agree that far more people are disillusioned about the entire patent process. Apparently, though, nothing will come of that until some government-types are inconvenienced by the system.
Trolling is a art,
Because I'd really love to have a Rim job.
then why not implment it and end the whole mess?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
"As a contingency, RIM has announced that they have a software workaround that will allow service to continue uninterrupted."
Dad was telling me to buy shares in this company. I should have listened.
So what happens to SCo's case if the work around is accepted and validated by a higher court? That's right- they'd be hosed! Well, more so, but it will be interesting to see how this case plays out and the ripples that it causes.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
The invalidation would be irrelevant and unnecessary if RIM has workarounds.
They're not making any money from already-sold devices.
And they'll be able to continue selling new ones.
They'll spend a few bucks selling firmware upgrades, if that's even possible.
Or they'll sell "upgraded" devices (maybe at a slim discount) to current customers.
Now, that might invite a class-action lawsuit from Blackberry owners claiming they were defrauded by someone selling pirated IP, but when has that ever cost any company what it was really worth to the class?
At worst, the judge will order RIM to pay a reasonable royalty. Shutting down the network would not be a legal option.
Now, where's my broker's number? I need to text him a buy order....
Nostly, you can keep your appointments/calendar, memos, tasks, emails, etc in sync with your Exchange profile. Some of them have 2-way capabilities, but other than that, they're just normal cells as far as I can tell.
Long signatures suck.
under pressure from crackberry-addicted Congressmen, may be moving to invalidate NTP's patents
I don't know about you, but I don't want any addicts making my laws.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Am I the only person here who's never used a Blackberry and never known anyone who's used one?
Yes, I know some genius is going to reply "Yes." and probably get modded +5, Funny for it. But I'm serious. I've never seen one of these things in use.
I have a black-berry and I'm just not disciplined enough to utilize the device to it's full potential.
;)
And who said opposing thumbs made us primates so much more advanced?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
They're much more than normal cells... They're push based email devices, so there's no need to poll for email or "check your inbox". It gets your email almost as soon as it shows up in your email box at home/work. Very powerful, and very useful. You're always connected (and like a phone it can vibrate or ring whenever you get an email.)
Additionally, you can send, accept, etc meeting requests, check other people's calendars, etc. In a large enterprise environment, its pretty indispensible.
"Crackberry" refers to the device. The term is used because so many of the users act like crack addicts - they can't go anywhere without their Blackberry and they stop whatever they are doing (talking, eating, etc.) the second the freakin' thing vibrates to let them know they have email because that email is far far more important than any other person they might be interacting with at the time. Some of the criticisms could be directed at cell phone users too because they often exhibit some of the same characteristics. People that get a Blackberry act like they can't live without it. Personally, I hope I never get one and at present, my company sees little value in it because we have cell phones they use to reach us 24x7 in emergencies.
Hams have used Packet Radio since 1980. Packet Radio is wireless transmission of ASCII messages, which is what RIM provides via Blackberry receivers. How is this not prior art?
What is packet radio: http://www.choisser.com/packet/part01.html
Wiki on Packet Radio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio
Crack-Berry is a jab at former DC Mayor Marion Barry
You see, he was Mayor for 12 years, got caught smoking crack, then went to jail for 6 months.
After getting out of jail, he became a DC city councilman, served another term as mayor, then became a consultant.
In 2004, he ran again for a seat on the city council, won it and about a year later, tested positive for cocaine use.
Marion "Crackberry" Barry
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Now that RIM has a software workaround, I'm thinking that NTP may have
just lost a lot of money. RIM may no longer have any reason to
settle out of court with NTP, or at least they may cut the offer
way back as a result.
I'm curious as to if this software will work on all BlackBerry
models, or just the newer ones.
[i]The U.S. government has even joined the dispute, arguing that BlackBerry's are vital to national security.[/i] Sure, if they have some flaw known only to the NSA that allows them to read terrorist messages: they don't want people moving to something more secure, perhaps?
If RIM were to say, on a Monday morning, "Due to patent litigation in the US, all Blackberry service will be turned off immediately, indefinitely" we'd see patent reform by Wednesday.
Just as "hard cases make bad law," sometimes there's a confluence of defendant and public (uh, congresional) interest which cause a certain set of facts to be uniquely positioned as a spur to reform. I don't want exclusions for federal workers, I want this case to be used as a blunt instrument to get congress to address the problem. UNFORTUNATELY, what would be best for everyone (IMHO) isn't what's best for RIM, and I doubt they'd take one for the team.
Everybody's a libertarian 'till their neighbour's becomes a crack house.
Your not bitter about this.....
I believe NTP's patents are on a much narrower definition of the way RIM's system works.
i.e. they haven't patented sending text messages between devices, they've patented a very specific method of making email available to a mobile device. I don't recall, but I believe the patent deals partially with the corporate firewall problem.
In short, whether it is valid or not, their patent does not apply to packet radio, nor can packet radio be considered prior art for the system.
A good example. Joe Caveman invents the wheel in 500 B.C.
In 1990, John Doe invents a specific tread pattern for a rubber tire that has some Really Nifty Benefit. It's based on the wheel, but enhances it. John Doe can't patent the wheel due to prior art (Joe Caveman in 500 B.C.), but John can patent his specific enhancement of the wheel.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Yes, it is. The big deal is that they sell an additional piece of hardware/software that your admin installs inside your firewall, which bundles up all of your corporate e-mail and sends it out to the device. Add that to the included readers for most popular office formats, and the easy-to-use keyboard, and it becomes a mobile office.
Keep in mind that, for most people with firewalled email servers, a device like this is the only way that they can have remote access to their e-mail, if their sysadmin supports it.
This probably doesn't seem like a big idea to all the uber-geeks out there, but it's practically a miracle to salespeople and middle management types who can't configure a mail client on their own.
it would be interesting if, for whatever reasons, Congress will be able to rule NTP's patents with regard to Blackberries invalid. After that, we can push for a lot of things to be made invalid citing similar circumstances.
...huh? What was that? Something about patents? Sorry, I was busy sending out some emails.
Sony ha
Hell I could give a darn less if they cut off the email to mine, however just don't take away my blackberrry ssh terminal.....i live and die by that sucker...
Got Code?
I beg your pardon. ;-)
I'm not in management, and AM an über geek, and my BB is indespensible purely because in meetings I can send and receive PIN msgs to and from my colleagues. It's the 21st equivalent of passing notes.
Oh, and the browser is the only way I have to check GMail from work.
Also, one of TFA includes no information that would justify the comment that the USPTO is under pressure from congressmen to speed up its process of looking into the NTP patents. From the TFA:
Instead, there is an analysis into the patent dispute in one of TFA:Crack-berry people should be admired - they aren't tied to their computers all day, just to do email. They are out and about enjoying their time, getting more done outside the office with these things. Frankly anyone who can actually keep up to date, reply to messages, and who can take care of business with these things is a hero in my books.
b lackberry (WMP or QT)
Riiiight...
Meanwhile, this is how the REST of the world sees Crackberry users:
http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/video_player.html?
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
I suspect that there are workarounds possible -- it's "only" wireless email afterall. But RIM still has to continue to fight this until the very end. If they lose, they will have to pay royalties on all devices previously sold. The software fix would allow them to continue selling new, unencumbered, devices. So, RIM is doing the smart thing by dragging this out as long as possible. They have a reasonable chance of winning, thereby saving hundreds of millions in royalties. And, more importantly, it buys them more time to continue to work on the work-around and probably do some full scale rollouts to test customers. It's never easy to make a change that affects a few million devices so the more time the better.
I don't know much about it, but this guy's comment doesn't make RIM look likely to be a good poster boy for patent reform.
Warning that there's a bit in the middle there that is NSFW - may want to think about who you forward it to.
Hilarious and dead-on though!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Indeed many (most?) Blackberry users instantly stop what they are doing - ordering food, talking, paying attention to traffic, etc. the moment the Blackberry activates.
This might not be so bad, as you mention it is similar to cell phone addicts in this regard - but consider that Blackberry users are doing this every time they get an e-mail! Now think of how much email you get at work, and how many Blackberries are tied into corperate email accounts... and you start to realize the extent of the problem and the reason why many consider Blackberry addicts much worse than phone addicts. Hence teh "Crackberry" since it's so much more annoying a problem.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I always hoped I would never have to carry one of these cursed things, but I've been carrying one since June, when I was tasked with installing a Blackberry Enterprise Server...
I hate the dammned thing, but the bright side is at least I can almost always know if the email server is up!
Goofy, Geeky Gifts and More!
Or is it rimming congressmen ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimming/
its not just congressmen and senators its also their staff and the lobbyists and reporters in DC that live on blackberries. I worked in the senate last semester and saw it first hand, RIM service in DC is indispensable and may bring both legislative houses to a crawl if shut down.
If the company/sysadmin is happy to send its mail out through a third party's servers using a proprietary blackbox inside their internal network to leap the firewall, but won't open port 993 for an industry standard secure mail protocol, then someone has needs their head read.
Here's some info on BB security/encryption:
r /exchange/security.shtml
http://www.blackberry.com/products/software/serve
-Nick
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
There's one part where he comes out of the shower with helmet and blackberry on - but nothing else.
Funny but some people might take it badly!
At least it's male nudity.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
In other words, nothing that can't be done with any 'cell' that connects to a 2.5 or 3g network and has the abbility to run local apps.
The power of the blackberry is in the integration they have, not in the features they provide.
There are 11 types of people. Those who understand binary, those who don't and those who are sick of this lame joke.
I want to get hired there so that I can get a RIM JOB. HAHHAHA
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
Still, prior art is prior art in that case. Doesn't really change anything in my example. :)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I was wondering if it had originally been pixelized, but unfortunatley the pixeliztion ended up looking like detail sharpening when the rest of the video was resized!!!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"All of NTP's patents have already been rejected by the Patent Office and it's expected to issue a final ruling in the coming weeks, which could impact any decisions by the U.S. District Court."
Does nobody actually pay attention to these?
You use your browser to check gmail? Which device?
My 7290 won't do it through the browser, although you can get apps to do it or download via POP.
First of all, your govt representative doesn't give a hoot about service interruption because the court has&will rule that the shutdown must not affect government employees and they must continue to have access.
Second, it seems blatantly clear that the workaround will be implemented only after a shutdown. I suspect whether or not the "workaround" actually avoids infringing on NTP's patents is irrelevant. It will buy more serious time for RIM, time spent in the courtroom deciding on fresh new software, and ultimately more time for the patent office to retract their view on the rest of NTP's patents.
Since this case has started, RIM has been buying time instead of paying out; given time, they know they will be proven right. Why pay with close to $1B in royalties when you can play the legal system game as well as your slimy IP litigator and sit on your bum until your enemy is only months away from having the carpet pulled under him? (plus i loveee sitting on my bum.)
I dunno so much about that. My current company gave me a blackberry a couple of months ago... I'm sure it's around here somewhere. I know where the charger is at least :D
You can duplicate the functionality of the device with a pda on any decent wireless data network except that for email etc it's push technology like a pager and without sacrificing battery life. At ti's core it's a two way pager more than an cell phone. This means it's not activly checking your email all the time it's just waiting for a packet with it's name on it so it does not have to transmit except to ack the data being received. If your not in range you will get all your new emails etc once you are.
It does all this with good encryption (meets hippa) and battery life measured in days.
No sir I dont like it.
The only problem with a PDA and 'mail push' is its battery life. A smartphone does not have this problem at all, and push technology to get notifications or info to a phone ona GSM or GPRS network has been there for as long as those 2 exist, or do you really think a phone is continuesly polling for text and multimedia messages? You realize how easy it is to trigger a mail receiver with that and and then initialize the mail transfer? That is also what this 'pager' functionality in Blackberries does basicly. Oh, and I hope that RIM is not using the pager network for it still because that network is not going to last very long in most parts of the world if it is still there at all, not to mention that there is no 'roaming' possible with pager networks (since the device never 'talks back' there is no way whatsoever of knowing where it is)
Blackberries are nice because of how well integrated the functionality is, and in a way, because of how they make good use of existing technology. Do not make the mistake however to believe that there is any tec hnology that is exclusive to the Blackberry, there isn't, and it is not doing anything that cannot be reproduceded with off-the-shelf hardware and custom software on todays generally available cellphone networks. Their 'trick' is in this custom software and the server end of this, oh, and they got it in a nice sturdy package of course.
O'd suggest you look a bit into mobile communications technology (pagers, cell phones, wireless packet switched networks and the like), you'll understand a lot better what I'm saying when knowing what those technologies can do and what their limitations are. That said, it will also be obvious why the current patent litigation agains RIM is rubbish, there is really nothing 'new' technology wise in what they do, nor is it non-obvious.
It gets your email almost as soon as it shows up in your email box at home/work. Very powerful, and very useful. You're always connected (and like a phone it can vibrate or ring whenever you get an email.)
How does this differ from an IMAPS connection in IDLE mode?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)