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."

Comments

Good move for the wrong reasons.

[grub]

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.

Re:Ok I admit

[NickV]

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.

Re:How is RIM relevant to me?

[imadoofus]

Yes.

Blackberry = Packet Radio = 1980

[Deeper Thought]

NTP filed their patents in the 90's.

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

I wish RIM would fight

[fuzzy12345]

Not that this will happen, but...

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.