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RIM Settles Long-Standing Blackberry Claim

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the end-to-a-long-and-sordid-tale dept.

David Jao writes "Research in Motion has agreed to pay 612.5 million dollars for a 'full and final settlement of all claims' resulting from the NTP patent lawsuit against the makers of BlackBerry. According to the article, the settlement is 'on the low end of expectations', perhaps because the patents in question had earlier been preliminarily ruled invalid by the US Patents & Trademarks Office." Many article submitters characterize this move as 'giving in' to NTP's tactics. What do you think?

14 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. I'm confused... by chill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...if the patents that based NTP's lawsuit were going to be ruled invalid, what was the basis for the settlement? Why didn't RIM just tell NTP to go fuck themselves and wait for the patent office to finish. No patent == no patent infringement == no lawsuit.

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    1. Re:I'm confused... by jarich · · Score: 4, Insightful
      I suspect that they were bleeding customers like crazy from all the bad publicity and the near shutdowns. I can't imagine how much stress their bean counters were under! ;)

      Also, do you really know that the patents were invalid? I haven't looked at it that closely.

      --
      Agile Artisans
    2. Re:I'm confused... by cyngus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Simple. The uncertainty surrounding RIM was hurting their business and was going to continue to. By resolving the dispute sooner they keep many customers they might have lost and have a better chance of attracting more. NTP could have kept this dragging through the courts for years and possibly sunk RIM in the process. Gotta love corporate shakedowns.

    3. Re:I'm confused... by GoMMiX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ahhh, but people thought this case had something to it. They had patents. SCO on the otherhand has nothing, and even they know it.

      Lets not forget IBM was not losing business at all as a result of SCO's suit against them. SCO's suit against IBM has actually been positive publicity for IBM - that much has been apparent since the day it was filed.

      The blackberry, on the otherhand, had a lot of people very concerned given the validity the courts gave to the claims (IE: they already won once).

  2. 612.5 million?! by BewireNomali · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Low end of expectations? Wow. This justifies patent squatting to the unscrupulous looking for the cash-out.

    --
    un burrito me trampeó.
    1. Re:612.5 million?! by faedle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yep. And it all started when RIM very loudly and publically stated that they would sue others based on their patent claims.

      RIM got exactly what they deserved.

  3. Disappointed by OzPhIsH · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm pretty disappointed with this move by RIM. I was hoping that by going all the way through the courts we might get some serious patent reform out of the whole mess. While this brought a lot of attention to the issue, I fear that it will just go back to being business as usual at the patent office.

    --

    "To lead the people, you must walk behind them"

  4. No other choice... by avalys · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They had no other choice but to give in. There was an article in the WSJ today that talked about how many people were switching to competitor's products, just because of the uncertainty surrounding the Blackberry.

    It will be interesting to see how easily they recover from this.

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    This space intentionally left blank.
  5. Re:Who gave up? Not RIM, that's for sure! by HoneyBunchesOfGoats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So if someone tries to blackmail me for $100 and I talk them down to $50, I didn't give in either?

    That's some faulty logic right there.

  6. The only thing worse than a patent troll... by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 4, Insightful

    is a patent troll with $600M in the bank.

    --
    Do you have ESP?
  7. Not having a product doesn't mean anything by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not in favor of NTP or anything, but the people who point out that NTP had no product are missing the point of patents.

    Suppose you invented the Blackberry. You. Right now. You have the idea. Now what? Do you have the financial backing to manufacture a million Blackberrys? Do you have the industry connections to go around and make deals with all the mobile carriers to get your service into people's hands? No. But it's still a good idea, so you want to go forward with it. That means finding potential partners and investors. But just talking to those people about it is spreading the idea around. Suppose you go to the mobile company and say, "I have these plans for this service, I'm going to call it Blackberry." What's stopping them from just making the service themselves and cutting you out of the picture completely?

    Your patent is.

    In an ideal world, that's what patents are for: protecting the little guy inventor from big business.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
    1. Re:Not having a product doesn't mean anything by DShard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Which is utter bunk. NTP came in after the fact, well after precedent and patented obviousness. These people had no product other than litigation. Their business plan was to sue successful companies.
          Now let's assume that you are the little guy. You come up with something utterly missing in the market. Let's call it middle management crack. So you patent it, build a company on it and become the "next big thing".
          During that time, a different company, comes in who doesn't actually make anything new or produce any products. What they do is buy "analysts" to come up with how your design is "not patented". Next they produce legalease to sue you for your unique business model. At no point have they ever had _one_ customer and now they sue you.

      This is what happened in this case. In an ideal world, people can not use the justice system to extort money from you.

  8. Back to Business as Usual by tekrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This didn't solve anything. If anything it made things worse. I didn't see *ANY* reporting that the flawed patent system was at fault.

    All I heard from the mainstream news media was the Blackberry was being sued, and now they settled for $600 Million, so, in my mind, they must have been at fault.

    Furthermore, this payment will embolden other patent trolls who want to be fed to the tune of millions for doing nothing.

    And the Patent System will go merrily on it way, because now that Senators can use their Blackberries again, do you think they are going to give a tinker's damn that the system is flawed?

    If I'd been running Blackberry, I'd have shut down service for 24 hours, with the message "we can't provide service due to a flawed patent system.".

    Does anybody here remember the day everyone made their webpages BLACK as a protest? Does anybody remember when it was OKAY to fight back against something that was wrong? Now it seems, the M.O. is to give up, pay the bastards and lick your wounds, regardless of who's right or wrong.

    In fact, the more wrong you are, the harder you should fight, it seems, because these days, the good guy always loses. (RIAA anyone?)

    What a wonderful lesson to teach our younger people.
    George Lucas should make a movie on that subject.

    So this is how freedom dies. With a $600 Million payout.

    TTYL
    A disgusted and concerned old-timer.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  9. RIM is a not a hero, fellas by feijai · · Score: 5, Insightful
    RIM:
    1. Worked so hard to run its competitors out of the market with lawsuits that The Register nicknamed it "Lawsuits in Motion"
    2. Ignored all entreaties from NTP for a year, forcing NTP to eventually sue them.
    3. Lied in court so often that they received three-times punative damages just for their court conduct alone, plus attorneys' fees.
    4. Gave Congress free Blackberries as a tactic to get them hooked, then
    5. (Successfully) Lobbied Congressmen to put big-time pressure on the USPTO to invalidate NTP's patents while the court case was ongoing (can you say "cut off their air supply"?), regardless of their actual validity. In the US, if you're doing something illegal, you can always get the law changed if you have enough money. Even if you're a foreign company.
    6. Tried to push through a congressional resolution that shutting down the Blackberry network would be a "threat to national security" because of the free Blackberries they'd hooked the feds on.
    7. (Successfully) Lobbied the Canadian government to weigh in as if this were a matter of international concern.
    8. Purposely delayed resolution until after NTP's original inventor died.

    This company deserves to go straight to hell. $612 million is a rap on the knuckles.