Canada’s Blackberry maker Research In Motion is hoping its future is looking brighter following recent decisions from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the court hearing the patent infringement case brought against it by NTP.
Patent holding company NTP successfully sued RIM for infringement in 2002 and won an injunction in 2003 to shut down RIM’s wireless service in the United States. RIM won a stay of the injunction as the company embarked on a lengthy appeal process which is now all but exhausted. And RIM’s prospects in the U.S. got even darker at the end of November when the judge hearing the case ruled a settlement agreement between NTP and RIM was invalid, raising fears the originally network shutdown ordered by the court would actually be carried out or that RIM would have to reach a very pricy settlement with NTP in a big hurry.
Now, two rays of hope have lifted RIM’s spirits. U.S. District Court Judge James Spencer ordered both parties to file final briefs by February 1, 2006, effectively extending proceeding into the new year and putting off any immediate action on the case. The February 1 deadline is considerably later than many expected, given the impatience with the proceedings the judge has repeatedly expressed.
Additionally, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which operates completely independently from the court overseeing the case, has issued a “non-final action” finding that a third NTP patent at the center of the infringement case is invalid. While the USPTO granted NTP the patents years ago, challenges from RIM and other claimants have led the office to re-examine the patents and prior art. So far, the USPTO has issued preliminary rejections on all five NTP patents at the core of its case against RIM, and escalated three of those rejections to “non-final actions.” The Wall Street Journal is reporting the USPTO has assigned a dedicated team to the re-examination of the NTP patents, meaning the office’s final call
