[Ecommerce] Blackberry to shut down?

[Michelle Childs]

<snip>Any injunction, however, would not cut off BlackBerry service to
government officials =97 only to individuals and businesses.

Michelle

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,39020336,39239295,00.htm
RIM loses ground in patent dispute

Declan McCullagh
CNET News.com
December 01, 2005, 09:55 GMT

The BlackBerry service looks to be in greater danger than ever of being
shut down in the US over a long-running patent dispute

Research In Motion on Wednesday lost two rounds in the long-running patent
lawsuit that threatens to imperil the company's BlackBerry service in the
United States.

US District Judge James Spencer denied RIM's request to halt the
proceedings until the US Patent and Trademark Office re-examines whether
the patents are valid. Spencer said judges are under no obligation to wait
and suggested that the re-examination process could take up to 10 years,
if appeals are counted.

In a second order released Wednesday, the judge also rejected a $450m
(=A3260m) settlement reached earlier in the year between RIM and NTP =97 a
small patent-holding company that filed the lawsuit =97 saying it was not
"valid and enforceable." That settlement fell apart in June.

"This court cannot and will not grant RIM the extraordinary remedy of
delaying these proceedings any further than they already have been based
on conjecture," Spencer wrote, noting that RIM was found liable for patent
infringement after a jury trial more than three years ago.

Canada's RIM can avoid any US service shutdown if it can find some way to
prevail in court or if it chooses to pay to license the patents from NTP.
Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-chief executive, also has claimed that RIM has a
backup "workaround" for BlackBerry devices and their accompanying servers
that could be used if necessary =97 and prevent BlackBerry customers from
being disconnected.

NTP said in a statement that Wednesday's rulings "permit the case to
continue moving forward to address the remaining issues in this case,
including reconfirmation of an injunction that prohibits RIM from selling,
using or importing into the United States infringing BlackBerry hardware
and software." RIM did not immediately respond to an interview request.


If the judge does grant a permanent injunction, and RIM's technical
workaround fails, the company would be forced to pay a hefty fee to keep
its US BlackBerry service operational. (It has about $1.2bn in cash on
hand.) Any injunction, however, would not cut off BlackBerry service to
government officials =97 only to individuals and businesses.


Spencer said he will set up a briefing schedule "on the remaining issues
of injunctive relief and appropriate damages." As of August, the
court-estimated damages were approximately $210m.


Last December, a federal appeals court ruled that NTP's patents had been
violated but said RIM could continue selling its products until
proceedings in the district court were complete. The court slightly
amended its ruling in August, and the US Supreme Court declined to
intervene.

Final rulings from the US Patent and Trademark Office on re-examinations
of eight NTP patents related to the NTP-RIM litigation are still pending.
RIM, claiming that the Patent Office should not have issued NTP's patents
in the first place, in August asked that the patents' validity be
re-examined.







--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
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