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RIM Wins Ground in Patent War

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fire-in-the-hole dept.

ttyp0 writes "The maker of the BlackBerry on Wednesday gained some ground as it fights a battle over patents with NTP, which is trying to shut down most sales and service of the portable e-mail device in the United States. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection of one of five disputed patents owned by NTP, another step in a long process that Research In Motion Ltd. hopes will allow it to keep operating its U.S. BlackBerry service. NTP, a closely held patent holding company, has successfully sued RIM for infringement of its patents. I've been following the case closely as our company is about to invest in BES, a costly venture indeed."

3 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. From an engineering perspective by troll+-1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hasn't this dispute been going on forever? The sad irony is that if you add up all the legal resources consumed by this case and divert them to pure technology you could completely reinvent and develop the entire system.

    How does all this help to promote the progress of science and useful arts as set forth in Article I, secition 8 of the US Constitution and for which patents are supposed to have their purpose?

    In some perverse way Blackberry's troubles may be a deserved lesson in not adopting an open standard.

    Even if Blackberry wins this, they'll eventually be hit with a "hot coffee" musculoskeletal disorder lawsuit.

    So what's the answer? More lawyers, less engineers and invertors?

  2. Re:From what I've read of the legal battle by vertinox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Any time lawyers make money, it must be good for the economy. i.e.: Class action lawsuits, patent infringements, antitrust cases, etc....

    Its not like the lawyers are hording the money.

    I mean, think of all those poor hookers that would be out of a job if we didn't have all that litigation money going into the lawyer's pockets. ;)

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  3. Re:RIM litigated first by JohnFluxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think it's eye-for-an-eye philosophy, but more of a karma philosophy. Many of us are at least smirking that RIM that lived by the patents dies by the patents, as they say. They tried sue others for stupid IP infringements, and now they are being brought down by another company suing them for stupid IP infringements. If that's not karma, I don't know what is :)