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U.S. Government Intervenes in Blackberry Patent Fight
The U. S. Government has filed a “statement of interest” in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that is considering the ongoing dispute between Research In Motion Ltd. (“RIM”) and NTP Ltd. (“NTP”). In 2003, a jury verdict found that RIM had infringed on NTP’s patents but an injunction against RIM was stayed pending appeals. RIM has asked the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine NTP’s patents but the Virginia court indicated that it would not wait to make a decision until after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office dealt with the validity of the patents. There is, accordingly, a real possibility that an injunction could be issued against RIM. The U.S. government is asking the court to ensure that any such injunction does not interfere with government workers’ ongoing ability to access their emails using Blackberry devices. The government’s submission says that the case should not be allowed to jeopardize a vital communications link for federal workers. It is estimated that approximately 10% of the 2-3 million Blackberry users in the U.S. are state and federal government employees. NTP has taken the position that it would be easy to identify the government subscribers so that a stoppage of service would not apply to them. The government’s filing says, on the contrary, that there does not appear to be a simple manner in which government users can be identified.
For more information, visit:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/13145917.htm