U.S. Patent Office Likely to Back BlackBerry Maker
OTTAWA, Dec. 19 - The technology patents at the heart of an infringement lawsuit by NTP against Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, are likely to be struck down by the United States patent office …
Context & Ripple Effects
Research In Motion has been living under a cloud since NTP's patent war produced an infringement win against the company in 2002, leaving its U.S. BlackBerry service exposed to a possible shutdown while the dispute dragged on. NTP, which has already monetized the portfolio by signing a license agreement with Visto, has been pressing its leverage hard.
What changed with this report: the United States Patent Office's re-examination of the patents at the heart of the suit appears likely to strike them down. If the office follows through, NTP's courtroom position rests on invalidated claims — and RIM's existential exposure largely evaporates. The story traveled widely enough that even The New Yorker weighed in with a 'BLACKBERRY PICKING' item.
First-order effects
- Invalidation would strip NTP of the legal basis for its 2002-derived infringement claims, collapsing its negotiating leverage just as RIM weighs a costly settlement or a service shutdown.
- RIM gains room to keep selling and supporting BlackBerry devices in the U.S. market without an injunction hanging over every shipment, including the rumored BlackBerry 8700c launch.
Second-order effects
- NTP's licensing business model — exemplified by the Visto agreement signed days earlier — comes into question if the underlying patents are rejected, forcing other licensees and suit targets to reassess what they agreed to pay for.
- Rivals building wireless push e-mail offerings face a different competitive picture: the same patents that constrained the whole category lose their power to tax or exclude them.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, patent office re-examination becomes a standard defensive weapon for accused infringers facing non-practicing patent holders, shifting part of the fight from district courts back to the examiner's desk.
- The episode adds fuel to the broader debate over software and business-method patents of the kind NTP asserted — broad claims granted in the early wireless era now being tested against the products they were used to threaten.
The trend: Wireless-industry patent enforcement by licensing-focused holders like NTP is colliding with re-examination at the U.S. Patent Office, making invalidated claims a live counterweight in high-stakes infringement suits.