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.
RIM is not guilty as SIN! The piliminary findings from the Patent Office has stated that NTPs patents have no bearing on RIMs business. Which means RIM technically has not been infringing on any patents. The origanal courts findings where based on the patents being ligit which now after the final reports will show they are not and basically show that NTP was trying to get money.
I do agree that there is no way that the courts could shut it down because to many people rely on the service including the government. I just hope NTP is thrown out of the court room and does not get anything.
Not only do the patents have no bearing on RIM’s business, the US Patents office has declared all 8 of the NTP patents, 5 of which RIM was found guilty of infringement on, are invalid.
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Do you really think that the 3.5million thumbs will go silent? I don t think so because about 1/4-1/3rd of RIM Users are DOD/DOJ/State Government agencys…