Search Results for: NTP

Well, it looks like the $450 million patent dispute settlement didn’t actually settle things between Research in Motion and NTP, the Virginia based holding firm that owns several patents on “Push” mobile email technology.  The two companies had been entrenched for years in a heated patent infringement battle which was settled in March of this year to the tune of $450 million.  It seems like now the two companies can’t agree upon what they agreed upon earlier. 

RIM, which helped popularise mobile e-mailing with its thumb-operated BlackBerry, said on Thursday it has asked a U.S. court to enforce the terms of the deal the two firms announced in March because NTP “refuses to honour all of its obligations.”

Today, Research in Motion announced a $450 million dollar settlement with NTP, a Virginia based patent holding firm with several patents around wireless email technology, that resolves all current and future litigation and grants RIM and its customers the right to continue with its BlackBerry-related business and licenses RIM on all passed, present and future NTP patents.

RIM will pay to NTP US$450 million in final and full settlement of all claims to date against RIM, as well as for a perpetual, fully-paid up license going forward. The amount relates primarily to settlement of past damages, and includes the judgment and money escrowed to date totalling US$137 million (the US$152 million previously accrued included approximately US$15 million in other litigation related fees). It is expected that a substantial portion of the US$313 million, which is the balance of the settlement amount, will be expensed in the fourth quarter, ended February 26, 2005.

Shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) shot over 10% higher in the passed two days on speculation that the Ontario, CA based company will settle its patent infringement dispute with Virginia based NTP. The two companies that have been entrenched in a legal battle for several years met in front of a US judge for a settlement conference last Friday. Rumor has it that these settlement talks may have been spurred on by license agreements between NTP and Good Technology, one of RIM’s biggest competitors. In January, counsel for Research in Motion stated that RIM would not settle with NTP and was prepared to take it all the way to the Supreme Court.

TORONTO (CP) – California-based Good Technology Inc. said Friday it has agreed to licence five patents from NTP Inc., the U.S. company that claims the rights to key technology used in Research In Motion’s BlackBerry products.

Good Technology offers “always on” push email communication services that competes with BlackBerry but offers their services on a variety of handset models by different manufacturers. NTP is the Virginia based holding company that currently is entangled in a legal battle with Research in Motion, claiming that RIM has infringed on several patents around remote email technology that they hold.

Even though Ontario, CA based Research in Motion has already lost their patent infringement case with Virginia based holding company NTP, they have no plans to settle. In 2001 NTP claimed that RIM infringed upon several of their patents around push email technology and eventually was awarded 54$ million in damages and an injunction preventing RIM from selling there BlackBerry Handhelds and Services in the United States. That injunction was stayed and a higher court actually overturned the $54 million in damages but did uphold that RIM infringed upon 11 of 16 patents held by NTP.

Henry Bunsow, an attorney representing Research in Motion, said the company would not settle out of court and is prepared to argue before the U.S. high court.