RIM loses appeal against NTP
posted Oct 8th 2005 5:55PM
Well, the USPTO may have invalidated the last of several
patents that were at the heart of
NTP's patent infringement suit against
RIM (they allege that the BlackBerry violates several patents related to mobile wireless email), but that doesn't
seem to matter much to a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which yesterday denied RIM's request to rehear the case
(RIM's appeal was related to jurisdiction, not that NTP's patents had been overturned). That means that the case now
gets bumped back to a district court, where NTP is seeking to have its injunction barring RIM from selling BlackBerrys
in the US reinstated. Any patent lawyers in the house care to school us on why NTP still has a case after their patents
have been invalidated? Does the infringement case continue as normal while NTP appeals the USPTO's ruling?
[Thanks, Lip]
UPDATE: Todd nails it down for us in the comments.
Appeals courts only look at the issue directly before them - in this case, a jurisdiction issue. They don't hear evidence from witnesses and such like the district courts on Law & Order do - it's just a bunch of lawyers arguing boring matters from epically long (and misnamed) "briefs." RIM will have to argue the invalidation issue back in the district court, but this whole mess won't be settled until NTP exhausts its appeals on the invalidation issue. It will be years (or at a minimum, many months) before this is over, and I can't imagine a court would grant a temproary injuction barring RIM from selling Crackberries during that time. , as it would destroy RIM and there isn't much downside to NTP (which would be happy just to get money out of this).
I wonder if I could put this into a Schoolhouse Rock format and sell it on CD. Any takers?
Todd got it in one but I don't think the whole cd-rom thing will work out for him!
I can't imagine any court will issue an injunction when the patents have been invalidated. NTP will be unable to prove irreperable harm if the injunction isn't granted.
Blackberry is one of great Canadian business stories. Just check their stock recently or just look around - How many of these ugly squares pooped up on belts around you. Fenomenal infrastructure though - If you didn't know they host the whole traffic themselves in their own data centar in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Verdict: They should share some wealth :))
Peter Rojas: Any patent lawyers in the house care to school us on why NTP still has a case after their patents have been invalidated?
From your first link, Peter Rojas,
the US patent office just made a “first office action” rejecting the validity of the last of eight NTP patents they were reviewing, 5 of which were at the heart of the RIM patent infringement suit.
U.S. re-examination more or less literally meana a re-opening of the examination of the patent. What has happened is that the examiner has rejected one or all of the claims of the patent. This is not the same thing as invalidation.
The patent owner, in this case NTP, has the same opportunity as an applicant for patent to provide argument against the rejection, to amend the claims, or to file continuation applications. I believe the patent still carries the presupmtion of validity until the process is completed - which can take some time.
The U.S. procedure is largely ex parte - meaning that third party involvement is limited. Even with the reforms introduced a few years ago, US re-rexamination is not anything at all like European style opposition.
U.S. re-examination is inherently patentee-friendly. It is every bit as likely that NTP will end up with stronger claims - valid over the prior art - and STILL infringed. It all depends on what is written in the application, what the prior art discloses, and the competence and skill of the people involved.
NTP is, in short, far from dead.
My husband is planning to get me a BlackBerry for Christmas. Should I nix this idea and wait or is an outcome too far down the road to matter much?