Last NTP Patent Tentatively Thrown Out

Posted by Zonk on Thursday February 2, 2006 @03:41AM from the congressmen-rejoice dept.

pcause writes "Reuters reports that the fifth NTP patent has been rejected. What does it say about the US Patent office and software patents that these patents have made it through trials, appeals, etc and only now has the Patent Office decided they weren't any good in the first place?" From the article: "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has sided with BlackBerry portable e-mail device maker Research in Motion Ltd. by issuing a non-final rejection of a fifth patent at the center of its legal battle with patent holding company NTP Inc. The decision means the patent agency has now issued non-final rejections of all five patents at issue in a BlackBerry patent-infringement case before a federal judge."

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NTP? BlackBerry? by shish · 2006-02-02 04:03 · Score: 1, Troll

Somebody patented the network time protocol? They're competing with a fruit company? WTF? I've even read the article and I have no idea what they're on about :-/
Can somebody please explain, or at least define the terms used?

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