The Unofficial BlackBerry Weblog
Question: Who are Jim Balsillie and the number of times he said “Quote, unquote” in a four minute and thirty second interview about Judge James R. Spencer’s decision not to impose an injunction against RIM in the NTP vs. RIM patent infringement case.
Listen to it here.
Forrester Research telecom analyst Ellen Daley thinks theres about a 60 percent chance an injunction will be issued. Even if that is true in my opinion there is a 0 percent chance that BlackBerry gets shut down. In fact, I would be willing bet all the loose change that you could find in the various sofas, love seats, and recliner chairs in my house that your BlackBerry service won’t miss a beat.
Lets look at the worse case scenario for Research in Motion. An injunction is imposed today, the last four NTP patents are upheld on final review, and NTP wins their appeal (which we are sure they will soon file) on the first patent that was ruled invalid on final review Wednesday. All that RIM would have to do to make all this go away is the same thing that could have done years ago to make this go away. Pay NTP some incredibly large sum of money to settle.
A BlackBerry shutdown benefits no one. All NTP wants is to get paid and they know that in order for them to get paid, Research in Motion must continue to get paid. If RIM gets shutdown, NTP doesn’t get a check in the mail every quarter so they are just as much against an actual shutdown as RIM is.
Today is BlackBerry Friday. The day that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion possibly finds out it’s fate here in the United States. The latest episode in the NTP vs. RIM patent infringement case airs today when Judge James R. Spencer passes down his judgement on a possible injunction that could prevent BlackBerry devices and service from being sold in the United States.
I’ve been on the record many, many times stating that I don’t think that RIM will be shutdown and I still don’t. That doesn’t mean that an injunction won’t be imposed however. So far, I like Russell Shaw’s peek into the future as to what will happen.
Judge James Spencer is going to issue an injunction suspending BlackBerry sales and services in the U.S. Judge Spencer will, however, stay the injunction for a 60 day period.
The big question that I have if Russell is indeed right about how things go down is, “How will it be different than what is already going on?” RIM has already had injunctions barring the sale of BlackBerry devices and Service in the United States, but they have been stayed as well pending their appeals.
I know that Judge Spencer has become impatient with both NTP and RIM and wants to get this case off of his docket, however, I bet the whatever his decision is today, it won’t be the last time he rules on this case.
I have been, along with 7 other BlackBerry experts, featured in an article by Russell Shaw from BBHub, over on his IP Telephony, VOIP, and BroadBand blog on ZDNet. I was basically asked to give my opinion on what will happen tomorrow when Judge James R. Spencer hands down his ruling on if BlackBerry sales and service should be halted in the United States.
Here is what I had to say:
I personally just don’t think that Research in Motion would actually be shut down. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has officially notified both NTP and Research in Motion that they fully intend to invalidate the 5 NTP patents that RIM was found guilty of infringing upon in their final review and has already done so on every non-final review to date. It just wouldn’t make sense to cause the kind of financial chaos that a shutdown of BlackBerry service in the United States would create if a mission critical application with hundreds of millions of dollars in business process wrapped around it were shutdown because an “impatient” judge who is “tired of dealing with” the case cannot wait to see what the final word on the validity of the patents is from the USPTO.
This is is the week that the NTP vs. RIM patent infringement case could come to a head. I don’t think it will though…
Friday, February 24th, 2006 the biggest case in U.S. patent history could change the way many Americans receive email while on the go as District Judge James R. Spencer possibly hands down his ruling on an injunction against the sale of BlackBerry devices and BlackBerry service in the United States. I could be wrong (and usually am when starting sentences with “I could be wrong”) but if Judge Spencer actually hands down and injunction, I think that he will immediately stay it contingent upon the final ruling of the USPTO on the validity of the patents in question.
I know that Judge Spencer has stated he doesn’t have to wait to rule until the USPTO is done doing their business to rule, however, it just doesn’t make sense to throw U.S. businesses into such turmoil over patents, that by all accounts, will be rendered invalid.
Research in Motion is stating that if the Federal Judge James R. Spencer shuts BlackBerry service down, it could cost U.S. businesses $49 billion.
It is hard to see how disruption to the financial services industry or to Fortune 500 companies would do anything but harm the public interest, according to RIM, which cites a U.S. economist who estimates an injunction would have a $25 billion (U.S.) direct impact on the U.S. economy and $24 billion in indirect effects.
That is a heck of a lot of money, especially if it turns out that the NTP patents that RIM was found guilty of infringing on turn out to be invalid, which, however, by all accounts looks like will be the case when it is all said and done.
Via the Toronto Star
U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer has set the date for the next hearing in the NTP vs. Research in Motion patent infringement case to February 24th, four weeks from this Friday. In this hearing, Judge Spencer could decide whether or not to enforce an injunction against BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion, from the sale of BlackBerry devices or service in the United States.
Many are worried that RIM is going to be shut down, however, in the words of our friend Russell Shaw from BBHub, “It ain’t gonna happen“. If the USPTO hasn’t ruled all the NTP patents that RIM was found guilty of infringement invalid, Russell’s idea of of an escrow payment to NTP that waits until final outcome of the USPTO’s rulings is dead on.
By all indications, NTP’s patents will be invalidated which makes this case all but go away. If however, the worst case scenario for RIM creeps up, the patents are upheld, RIM still can, and would settle.
Read more
With every passing day it looks more and more like BlackBerry maker Research in Motion will have to settle with Virginia based patent holding company NTP over a patent infringement case that RIM lost a few years ago. The big questions are when will RIM settle with NTP and how much will they settle for? Some believe that the price tag could be upwards of $1 billion U.S.
Even though RIM is a pretty healthy company and they have a lot of cash on hand, that kind of payout will significantly affect the stock price adversely. Some analysts believe that the stock price that has been hanging around in the low $60s could work it’s way down to the single digits over time. That wouldn’t be just from a massive payout that looks inevitable, but also from mounting pressures and good enough technology from competition.
Research in motion is a media darling and is seen as a huge success when it comes to technology companies. It will be interesting to see how the company is perceived this time next year.
Tomorrow, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion goes to court again over the NTP patent infringement case. It is expected that RIM will ask the court to enforce a $450 million settlement agreement that fell apart back in the summer and that NTP will ask that the stay on the injunction against the sale of BlackBerry devices or operation of the BlackBerry network be allowed in the United States.
What do you RIMarkable readers think will happen if the injunction is actually enforced? Can you imagine the disruption to business in the United States if suddenly everyone’s BlackBerry stopped receiving mail? I know RIM says they have a backup plan to allow their service to run without infringing upon NTP’s patents but if it were as easy as flipping a switch, wouldn’t they have done that already? My guess is that it would be more than a small headache to switch to their backup plan.
I don’t think that there is any way that a U.S. court would enforce an injunction that would have such an adverse affect on U.S. business. Even if RIM is guilty as sin, which, I guess technically they are since they have already lost the case and are in the appeals process right now, there is no way that they would be shut down.
It should be noted that this is just my opinion and is not based on any facts or evidence. In fact my opinion could be contrary to facts and evidence as I have very little understanding of the law less what I get from CSI: Miami and Boston Legal. If you are looking for expert opinion from someone who actually went to law school as compared to someone who just went to school for biology and math, you may want to check the BlackBerry news tomorrow as I am sure this will be talked about by experts.
Despite legal woes and increasing pressure from rivals like Microsoft, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion sits on top of the PDA market with over 25% share according to analyst firm Gartner.
Research in Motion, maker of the popular BlackBerry devices, further extended its lead to 25 per cent of the overall PDA market, increasing shipments by 52.6 per cent year over year.
This is not too bad for a company that supposedly should be killed by every new PDA with email that comes out and that is about to be shut down by NTP over patent infringement on patents that the US Patents office says are invalid.