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RIM - The Whole Story
khendron writes "The Globe and Mail has published an article titled Patently Absurd, detailing the whole history of the RIM vs. NTP wireless war. It is a blow by blow account of how a dispute that could have been settled for a few million dollars is now 'a billion-dollar dagger hanging over RIM.' The article reads like a fairy-tale of egos, legal blunders, and patent stupidity."
While I'm not naive enough to think that the problem will get fixed any time soon, at least this will add another straw, and eventaully enough straws will be added to break the camel's back.
Oh, and by the way, NTP are bastards. I don't care about their cute little story. Nobody should be able to do a half-assed job and get hundreds of millions.
Ok...so...basically as pointed out in any number of the previous RIM/NTP stories, RIM started as a bunch of patent litigating bastards. Now...NTP attacks them with an equally moronic patent and suddenly we are all supposed to gather the horde, fetch the pitchforks and charge to RIM's defense because patents are bad. So...once this is over...and someone attacks NTP the same way RIM went on the attack, followed by NTP attacking, are we supposed to support NTP during their defense? This also brings up similar questions with SCO and friends...are we supposed to support SCO when they are attacked by the same litigious bastard types that they were being? I for one would like to see RIM get torn to pieces by this silly patent, partially as karma, partially as an example to the world how stupid this patent nonsense is getting, and partially becuase I just don't really like crackberries.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Personally I feel companies that buy and sell patents as if they're some kind of property are a disgrace to everything the patent and trademark system was founded to uphold. They're not using the patents to innovate, they're just using the patents to extort money out of other companies. NTP should have all its patents stripped because it's quite clear they're nothing but a patent squatter.
I said this once in a post a while back when this started going down hill. I was a procurement manager for a large telecom and personally handled the RIM agreement. There was only one way the agreement was going to happen, RIM's way or the highway. This is no joke. The lawyers for the telecom company I worked for then called them "Canadian Cowboys". RIM was flying high (and still is) and they think they are invincible. If this article is correct in that RIM could have settled this for a few million with NTP, then this holds true to my dealings with them. No negotiations, just sign the contract or we leave. When your the top dog in this space you can do this but you will leave a trail of ill will in the process and this is a small world. I sure hope RIM gets humbled by this.
"A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats."
The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
I'm curious about the demo that pissed off the trial judge. Does anybody know exactly what they did? What I wonder is whether it was truly a fraud or whether they used more recent software for innocuous reasons (e.g. they didn't have all of the original environment) and the demo was actually valid as evidence that the old technology worked?
It really does make my blood boil when one company holds the other up for ransom.
...problem is, sometimes these lawsuits are for good reasons and protect serious investments and thousands of employees.
...just had to get the angst out of my system...
It almost seems like this particular lawsuit is really loopy - a company that doesn't produce, doesn't intend to produce, and has no-one employed but lawyer types - sues a company that's independently thought up the stuff and made it happen.
The human cost is what scares me. We need lawsuits sometimes, but why do we need lawsuits that are just a means of taking money away from a successful entity?
I felt so strongly about this that I wrote and recorded a tune called "Patent Trolls Got No Souls."
A Passionate Independent Musician
I live and work here in Waterloo, which is home to RIM. I know the mentality of the academics from the university, which is where RIM and other (not as major) tech companies have sprung from in the area.
The academics here keep talking about one example with fondness: the case of Qualcomm, where some smart PhDs developed some wonderful intellectual property (in their case cell phone communication protocols) and patented it. From then on they basically do no work, and collect royalties from anyone who uses the CDMA technology. This is what they hope to achieve, to strike it rich in tech.
This is what Waterloo people seem to aspire to: striking it rich with some intellectual property patent, then milking the world for royalties. It wouldn't surprise you to learn that this is also one of the most popular places in North America that Microsoft recruits from. This place is young; the university is very new, the industries around it are new. And there is a mentality here, where academics expect to get rich easily by riding the patent wave.
RIM tried to do the same thing. They are basically a one trick pony, and besides the blackberry they have nothing going for them.
"...in theory the two countries' patents kind of knock each other out, right?" :) If you have rules under your household, and I am permitted to go into your home, isn't it logical to think that I should follow your rules and not my own habit of things in my own home?
No. Simple as that.
"I had more than a couple of friends who had done the nascent version of it before 1991: hooking modems up to a couple of computers that monitored servers and paged them text msgs when things happened. So RIM (and NTP) centralized the modem part?"
No. Also simple as that since your friends didn't patent that idea nor put out detail publication as proof of work. Can you return an item without any proof of purchase to a store?
"Whom did Motorola work with with its RIM-like boxes in the late 90's, SkyTel? How come NTP isn't going after SkyTel as well?"
Yes, and No. SkyTel (according to my brief research) used its own proprietary patented paging network with Motorola devices. Different patent, Different Story.
"Isn't the judge sort of presuming that RIM's founder was looking through USPTO's listings, found NTP's patents, and decided to implement them?"
No. Judges aren't to "presume" anything. That would be prejudice. However court can find evidence of "who put his/her hand in the cookie jar first" by patent and implementation. If I put my name on "first come, first serve" reservation in an exclusive restaurant days in advance, and later found out that someone else is enjoying the spoils at my expense (a reserved table), I could just walk away or ask that person to share the table with me, and in return, a contribution toward the tip. To the host/hostess (or judge), the damage is already done, however both party (you and the other person sitting on the table big enough for both) can work out a reasonable deal to accommodate the needs. But the guy on table (RIM) says, "I'll just pretend you don't exist, and hope you'll just go away."
Do you;
1) walk away and hope that one day, you'll be lucky enough and get another table at the restaurant?
2) ask host/hostess to ask the guy at the table to share again with proof of reservation?
3) if #2 fails, complain to the owner of the restaurant so that you are accommodated and get the message across to that rude person on that table?
Personally I would just walk away, because it's just a meal and there is always other restaurant and other tables waiting for me, more deserving of my business. However life doesn't await for you to sit on at other table as easily as a restaurant. Mr. Campana didn't just sit on his patents. He lost his business to bigger company like SkyTel in a bidding with AT&T. Started up numerous attempt to make his invention accessable to the public since 1970's. Call it, ill fate or unlucky steak, but NTP isn't just patent troll as you may think. Mr. Campana was in business of wireless paging 2-way comm since '70s with his ESA/Telefind and filing patents for his work (including child tracking system). In 1984, Mr. Lazaridis wins 6G contract with GM to build wireless terminal update system and later creates DigiSync (barcode reader) for film industry and way later when tided relations with Rogers Cantel from Mobitex (offshoot from Ericsson), he finally in 1996/1998 rolled out first 2-way pager using Mobitex(CA) and Bell South(US) network, using similar technology as Mr. Capmana had patented.
Only Mr. Campana's fault here is that in US, he was that "little guy" with no real prospect, while Mr. Lazaridis lucked out with Mr. Balsillie (MBA, business strategist) and Mr. Cantel and his backing in Canada and later Bell South in US.
During the course of history, what if Mr. Campana stroke gold with AT&T's contract? Would have AT&T's wireless 2-way real-time paging system been successful as RIM? or if at all? How would they have played out? Or would Mr. Campana compete with Mr. Lazaridis? As some may say companie
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."