Blackberry Patent Ruled In RIM's Favour

February 23rd, 2006: The US Patent and Trademark Office has issued a 'final rejection' of one of the patents previously found to have been infringed by Blackberry maker, Research In Motion.

This is the second ruling from the US PTO to go against NTP - the company claiming that RIM's Blackberry is infringing its inventions. A third patent has been rejected, but only in initial findings. And this does not mean that the potential shutdown of Blackberry services is any closer to happening.

The finality of the 'final' rejection - wherein three patent examiners explore the intricacies of the technology in question - is, however, not as final as you might expect - think of it as a 'preliminary final'. The reason for this is that the rulings can, and in fact are being, appealed through the US courts.

As we have already reported, NTP is seeking an injunction via the district court that could see RIM's Blackberry services shut down in the US. RIM has countered with what it considers to be a reasonable offer of $US450 million and also by announcing a software patch, which it claims will circumvent any issues.

NTP's case is being read before US District Court Judge, James R Spencer, tomorrow (Friday 24th February, US time). Whether the PTO's decisions will enter his thinking, or whether the simply makes a ruling based on trade over invention could add another year to what is one of the most intriguing Mexican standoffs in the history of IT.

And this standoff has resulted in some strongly-worded emails to IDM. The following comes from Ronald J Riley, President , Professional Inventors Alliance: "And… there is the issue of RIM's attempts to lobby the US patent office and the office's apparent response to such attempts. The USPTO has become increasingly politicized over the last decade. When faced with a hot potato like the RIM v. NTP case… the USPTO is anxious to lob the hot potato into the appellate courts. This is not the first case we have seen such conduct from the USPTO."

Does the Blackberry standoff make you less likely to use the system?

Related Article:
Blackberry: RIM Open To Reasonable Solution.