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.